Mass Effect: Supreme Redemption
by Guardian54
Summary: My Take on ME: Redemption, MShep/Liara, WARNING: the first TWO chapters contain smut. Direct sequel to Supreme Commander: Mass Effect, part of the semi-crack-fic string including all my SupCom/ME/Starcraft works. YES, I WAS STILL A NOOB AT WRITING AT THIS POINT, so you might want to skip this one and read some of my more recent work.
1. Rest and Relaxation

A/N: This is my take on Mass Effect: Redemption, direct sequel to Supreme Commander: Mass Effect and partly parallel to SupCom: KS, SupCom: The Thirteenth, and WorldWar: Supreme Balance in timeframe. (For the record, SupCom does not feature religions, other than possibly the Way, which is more of a culture anyways.)

The first couple chapters will be filled to the brim with potentially fluffy loving and SMUT (I WARN YOU NOW! IF YOU DON'T LIKE SMUT, GO TO CHAPTER 3!). Note that humans are on average taller than today, and Asari and Quarians are larger than shown in-game. However, the fic will eventually grow more serious.

Also, if you haven't read Supreme Commander: Mass Effect yet, this will not make much sense, go read that first, thank you.

* * *

Chapter 1: Rest and Relaxation

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, July 28, 3868_

"Hmm…" Liara rolled over in her sleep and wrapped her arm back around Shepard possessively while he watched her, eyes running over her perfectly proportioned face and hand gently stroking her head crest. She nuzzled closer to his hand involuntarily and inhaled deeply, a small smile spreading across her face as the scent of her lover filled her nose. It took a few minutes before she opened her eyes slowly, blinking, and smiled up at the face of the man she had fallen in love with. "Hey John" She pulled herself level with him, and since they were about the same height at 179 and 180 cm respectively (yes, Liara's a little taller than John is), their legs laced together perfectly and almost subconsciously. John was about average height for human males these days, while Liara was somewhat above average for Asari, sometimes, John was compelled to wonder why he was the shortest member of his crew, but he chalked it up to a particular incident he didn't want to remember from his past.

"Hey Liara, sleep well?" John was still running his fingers over her crest, loving the smooth feeling of her scalp and the soft grooves.

"You're here." She said simply, as if it was sufficient explanation, which for her it was, then planted a quick peck on John's smiling lips before nuzzling with him for a moment. "I think we should get up, don't want to be late for the ceremonies, do we?"

"Aw…" John pouted, causing Liara to giggle at his cuteness "Liara, I just want to stay here in bed all day…"

"Well I'm going to brush my teeth and get breakfast, you coming?" She'd stayed up and began pulling on her clothes. John had been ordered to "take it easy" for a few days by the doctors after he got his neck fixed, so she was teasing him by sleeping up against him completely nude every night and joining him in the showers while he, for medical reasons, wasn't permitted to "perform". She knew he was skilled, and she was looking forward to being ravished thoroughly after the medical regimen finally ended and the meds wore off. Perhaps her lover's skills, or the brief taste she'd gotten of them, were what made her horny so often these days, since in the last few days she'd sometimes found herself masturbating in the shower while Shepard was away at a debrief or something. But since two nights ago, she no longer needed to deal with it herself so often.

"Well," He'd sat up and wrapped his arms around her possessively, preventing her from getting up, and propped his head on her shoulder "if you're getting up, scratch the staying in bed part for me." John smiled at her goofily, giving her another peck before letting go and pulling his own shirt on as they began to dress.

Over the last few days, since John couldn't perform due to meds, they hadn't done anything that particularly required lots of nervous impulses through the spinal cord, in other words, they'd melded plenty of times but not gone for another Union yet. They'd gotten an even better understanding of one another than what they'd shared before, though both still respected some memories the other subconsciously didn't want revealed, staying clear of those. Joker had commented earlier "Since Shepard's not up for it, you've been spending way too much time mind-fucking one another, haven't you?" This had the unfortunate result of Liara "accidentally" lifting him from his chair and dropping him, resulting in another dose of medi-gel being applied by an annoyed Joker who hissed in the slight pain.

Ashley and Kaidan's take had been "You guys are mushier than we are, seriously…" before both groaning and face-mess table-ing when the two had exchanged words by gazing into each other's eyes over dinner one night in the mess hall. They'd been utterly ignored that time.

* * *

_Serrice Diners, Citadel, July 28, 3868_

After the minor mess known as a recognition ceremony for the "Hero of the Citadel" and his crew, they were enjoying dinner in one of the most exquisite Asari venues the Citadel had to offer. Strangely, the menu and signs were, as was true for all Asari and Quarian items Shepard had seen to date, in English, or recognizably derived from English words in a few Quarian cases. He looked across the two-person table he and Liara shared, watching his graceful Asari girlfriend dissect her food while feeding some food into his own mouth. For some reason, the Human and Asari foods were absurdly similar, to the degree of the Reaper Cuttlefish Wrex had chosen for the crew as a joke was nearly indistinguishable to the non-biologist from the human cuttlefish of the same name. Still, it was satisfying slashing up, well okay in more glorified terms, dissecting the things that for some odd reason bore great resemblance to Sovereign.

Liara was wearing a silky, shimmering dark red dress that hugged her figure but remained concealing as opposed to displaying her body like what Ash had chosen, which was a rather revealing Aeon green with white highlights. She looked up from her food and spotted Shepard observing her and the dreamy grin on his face, giggling before pointing with her fork "John, notice how Kaidan's eyes are glued to Ash's butt right now?"

"Well, well, I never thought Kaidan liked brown-nosing, and to do it in public too…" He turned about, and, as expected, Kaidan's eyes were fixed on Ashley's posterior as she walked over to the bathroom hall's entrance. Well, okay, more objectively, it would be described as sashaying over, showing off her bubble butt without being too obvious about it. "Seems like Ash is enjoying his attention…" In Shepard's humble opinion, blue was a better skin tone than the tanned complexion his Aeon best friend somehow maintained despite being Aeon and not being in the sun all that much. The one time he'd seen Aeon women in the nude on the extranet in his past, he decided the UEF was a lot better, since the Aeon were generally pale enough to be irritating to Cybran eyes, well, at least the classical Aeon beauty was a bit too pale to not look ethereal, and if Cybrans were about one thing, that thing was reality.

"Brown-nosing? What's that?" Liara had finished cutting up her food and asked before forking some into her mouth, tilting her head quizzically.

John wore a shit-eating grin, literally "I might as well just show you sometime in the future, you'll enjoy it, I hope. But it does involve the eyes in contact with the other person's ass most of the time." When females reached orgasm, or maybe it was just female Asari, and especially if they squirted, it could really sting the eyes, as Shepard had found out the hard way. Liara, across the table, was thinking that if it was anything like the kisses John had planted on her butt last time, she would enjoy it very much indeed.

* * *

WARNING: LEMON AND FLUFF. DON'T LIKE, SKIP.

FLASHBACK

_Bathroom, John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, July 26, 3868_

Liara entered the bathroom, already completely naked, leaving behind a sulking Shepard who was lamenting the damned meds Chakwas insisted on enforcing to make sure he didn't burn out his spinal cord before it fixed itself. She'd sashayed over to the door, her exposed butt swaying gently from side to side before she turned and winked at him, leaving her erect, purple nipples completely obvious to Shepard, who groaned and buried his face in his hands in frustration.

After she'd gotten into the shower stall, she turned the water on and began to rinse away the sweat that Shepard's relaxing massage had produced, it had thoroughly relaxed her body, as well as thoroughly turned her on. She'd been asking for it when she'd complained about the physical irritation all those debriefs with the highly irritating Council produced, John had offered and for some reason she couldn't refuse. She soaped up her head crest and gently rinsed between the soft but firm ridges, sighing softly at the pleasant feeling, but still acutely aware of the warm water, accelerated by gravity, going past her forehead and nose down to impact her still hard nipples, not hard enough to be painful, but still enough to be arousing.

Liara didn't quite know why, but it had become easier for her to get turned on after meeting Shepard. The effect was nearly imperceptible before their first Union, but afterward, she'd found that she got aroused far easier than she would have in the past, especially if Shepard was the one to do it. She let out a frustrated sigh at the warmth in her belly before reaching down past the smooth blue expanse of her belly, past her navel and rubbing her lips with her right hand while the left tweaked her right nipple. Liara gently squeezed the purple nub as she rubbed her pussy lips, thinking about Shepard's incredible oral and physical skills, which sadly she'd only had demonstrated on her once. True, he was slightly below average in length and girth, but he was very skilled at what he would do to her body with his tool, so she didn't mind.

She savoured the contact for a moment before her body, having been aroused for quite a while and with her juices literally trailing down one of her thighs, insisted that she plunge three fingers into herself while she rubbed her clit and labia with her thumb. She let out a quiet moan as she closed her eyes, thinking of Shepard's skilful tongue threading its way into her willing cunt while he played with her breasts. He pulled gently at her nipples in her mind, and then came up from his position between her legs to nip gently on the engorged nubs, still fingering her steadily and skilfully, his fingers finding her g-spot on every stroke, causing her to let out groans of pleasure…

"Hey Li—" John Shepard froze mid-stride into _his_ bathroom. Liara had forgotten her towel outside where he'd thrown it after giving her a massage. He blinked owlishly, his small amount of facial circuitry pulsing slightly in surprise as his jaw dropped at the sight of his gorgeous, completely nude girlfriend leaning on the wall of the shower stall slightly as she furiously fingered herself. One of her elegant blue hands was buried between her legs and the other was pinching a purpled nipple rather hard.

"Ugh…" She let out a breathy moan as she switched breasts. Shepard was left only to gape there, struck utterly dumb. "Ooh… faster John… ah…" Liara sped up somewhat, the soft squelching noises audible even beyond the panel of shatter-proof, structurally fielded (like almost all Coalition items) glass that kept water out of the main body of the bathroom. John shook his head as he deposited the towel on the towel rack, if he was letting her do that when she clearly wanted him to do it instead, then he wasn't doing his job as her boyfriend right. He set his mouth in a determined expression as he stripped off his clothes. Hopefully, Liara wouldn't mind the sudden intrusion, but the Asari scientist was on occasion rather shy, so he wasn't exactly sure how she'd react.

Shepard slid the stall door open and wrapped his arms around her from the back, eliciting a soft gasp from Liara as she opened her eyes and drew her hand away form her still dripping pussy "John… I… I can explain." She stammered nervously.

Shepard put a finger to her lips, silencing her as she looked into his eyes "Liara, it's natural to have needs, and I haven't exactly been diligent in fulfilling yours in the last few days, have I?" He grinned broadly as she flushed even more than before, and then began kissing his way down her back, starting with sucking softly at her neck as he'd seen done in many romance/porn vids, hoping for a positive response. He got one as Liara sighed and tilted her head, exposing more of her neck to his open-mouthed sucking. He would pull away with a gentle pop each time as he moved around the back of her neck, stroking the ridges on the back of Liara's head, distinct from her head crest, lovingly with his tongue, testing what worked and what didn't. Judging by her giggle and hum of approval, her head ridges were rather sensitive to stimuli as well.

John moved down to Liara's butt, stroking his hands down along her spine as he knelt behind her, the water was turned down to simply maintain temperature in the stall, which Shepard opened the door to, allowing fresher warm air to come in from the bathroom instead of the cool breeze of the ventilation systems. He kissed along the top of each globe before pressing a series of hot, open-mouthed and sloppy kisses all over his lover's cheeks, rubbing them gently and gently slapping one. It jiggled slightly, bringing a pleasured groan from Liara as she braced herself against the wall and spread her legs, giving Shepard free access.

John grinned and leaned in, tonguing Liara's slit from behind, licking the outside a couple times before threading his tongue in between the light purple lips to stroke along her organ gently. But when he pressed in harder, Liara stopped him with her biotics and turned around, pulling him up to her eye level "John, I don't think it's a good idea to bend your neck back like that…"

She was obviously disappointed about it, so John kept going with his fingers, stroking her gently and rubbing lightly against her clit while he looked into her eyes and told her "Liara, the bones took about two seconds for medi-gel to fix. It was the nerves that needed work, so I'll be fine." Before gently pushing her down to sit on the extendable seat in the shower "stall" which was more like a small room in size and could accommodate perhaps four to six people comfortably standing up in armour and equipment. "Does Union require spinal cord signals?"

Liara looked down at her boyfriend's equipment, suddenly irrationally irritated at the med regimen Chakwas was putting him on disabling said equipment for now "Yes, regrettably, but melding does not, am I correct in thinking…"

"Well, I haven't done and eternity embracing lately…" Shepard knelt down before her and leaned in, teasing her engorged clit with his tongue as he looked up into her eyes invitingly, which had already begun to dilate.

"Embrace… ooh… Eternity." Liara said the customary words as Shepard thrust two fingers into her, making a quiet squelching noise. Shepard suddenly acquired a second perspective, a perspective of the pleasure Liara was receiving from his skilful tongue and fingers.

_I knew those vids would pay off someday!_ Shepard thought happily. With an inquiring look from Liara, he explained "I used to watch porn simply to study technique, James always thought there was something wrong with me."

_Well, Shepard, you studied well… Ugh… so good, Shepard, that's the spot, faster!_ Liara groaned as Shepard began teasing her g-spot with his fingertips, tickling it and rubbing up against it. His speed picked up on her command, and his tongue work sped up as well, cleaning the juices that literally leaked from her hot, tight and wet vagina as his fingers worked, adding a third finger in the process. Liara instinctively grabbed the back of his head and pulled his closer with a hand while she let out moans of pleasure. It was a bit inconvenient for Shepard, who was tweaking one of her nipples, to get his arm around to her breasts, but he managed it by propping one of Liara's long, shapely legs up on his shoulder.

What Liara really liked about Shepard's technique was the way he almost always maintained eye contact, other than times when he was admiring her lustily, he was doing so now, looking her in her eyes, darkened by lust, and grinning as he cleaned her crotch with his warm, wet tongue. She took a moment to reflect on the contrast of pink and dusty purple flesh, and then refocused her eyes on the hand gently squeezing her breasts, alternating between the two globes of flesh, using the gap between index and middle fingers to pinch her nipples pleasurably. She mewled in pleasure before meeting Shepard's happy eyes again, feeling the love between them lapping at her in waves through their melding. It wasn't as deep or intense as a Union would have been, but it was still a wonderful feeling to behold, feeling the need for one another pulsing in the bond just as Shepard's fingers were pulsing into her.

Under Shepard's ministrations, Liara didn't take long to reach release as she clamped down on his head and pulled in toward her core forcibly, letting out a long groan as she squirted out her release. Sadly for Shepard, he'd forgotten to close his eyes, with the net result that he squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden stinging pain of Liara's cum splashing into them, careful not to bite down on her swollen, purpled clit as he trembled and latched his mouth over her vagina, sucking up the delicious juices as they squirted out. Coming down from her high and feeling the pain through the meld where for a moment there had only been euphoria, Liara opened up her legs and let Shepard's head go immediately, and then helped him rinse her stinging juices out of his eyes, apologizing profusely.

"It's alright, Liara, just… give me a warning next time, will you?" Shepard said, rubbing his bloodshot eyes (due to the sting of Liara's juices). She'd clamped down on his head with enough force to possibly damage the skull of a pre-Quantum Age human, so he'd had a hard time moving so that her juice no longer shot straight onto his face. Still, the foremost thing in his mind was that she tasted just as wonderful as he remembered, sweet, a bit salty and with an otherworldly aroma. Most would not describe the taste itself as utterly euphoric, but the situation was what made it the best thing Shepard had tasted in his life.

Liara nodded rapidly "I hope I didn't upset you by not telling you about my needs…" She said as they towelled themselves off and left the bathroom.

"No, I'm fine, you were just afraid of hurting me, after all, for most species a broken neck is a cause of death. And I'd broken mine only a few days ago." Shepard said as they drew the blanket, or more accurately duvet with a cloth wrap, over their bodies and spooned each other, Liara's slightly taller frame leaning back against Shepard's, their legs intertwining instinctively. "By the way, why were you so nervous when I found you?"

Liara took a deep breath before replying "Usually, among Asari, it is considered rude or insulting to masturbate when you already have a permanent partner who isn't incapacitated. Judging by your performance just now and what the medics told me, you most certainly weren't." She'd turned her head and upper body so that she was looking Shepard in the eyes.

John grinned before asking "Permanent partner?" His eyes twinkled.

Liara was suddenly nervous again "I… I hope so." She said in a small voice.

John untangled their legs and drew her in for a hug, stroking her head crest while savouring the feeling of their skin pressed up against one another "I was just teasing, Liara, I'd love to be your 'permanent partner', if you'll let me."

"That's a relief" Liara was, despite her personality changes and new experiences, still at heart the tongue-tied, somewhat naïve archaeologist Shepard knew and loved dearly. "So, what are your dreams for us?" She said, stroking a hand down John's chest, enjoying the feeling of his muscles under her fingers. John wasn't overly muscular, but he had just the right amount of muscle definition to make Liara want to jump him, not to mention his attractive mind and handsome face, and of course his very skilled hands that could play her body like an instrument in the hands of a professional.

"Oh I don't know, but I was thinking eventually marriage, old age, and a lot of little blue children sometime down the line." Shepard shrugged just before Liara pulled him in for a heated kiss, her light purple tongue dancing with his pink appendage sensually.

When they finally broke apart, and not for air either, since they could breathe through their noses, when the amount of spit shared between them became a bit much "That sounds perfect, John."

John tightened his arms slightly "I'm glad you think so too…"

They held each other in a comfortable silence for a while, before Liara stirred sleepily "John?" She asked without opening her eyes.

"Yes Liara?" Shepard looked across at his Asari… _no, that's too possessive. It's insulting to think of her like that_… and watched her adorable face snuggling into his shoulder, a goofy grin plastered across his face as he regarded his beautiful girlfriend.

"Was that a proposition?" Liara opened her sky blue eyes and looked into John's warm brown ones, pulling him tighter to her, if that was possible.

"No, I plan to do it properly someday, ideally after the Reapers are done with so that we'll have plenty of time to throw a party celebrating our engagement."

"Hmm… that would be wonderful." Liara lapsed into silence as the two slowly fell asleep, their bodies intertwined and breathing and pulse in perfect synchrony in the dark night-time lighting of the room.

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Citadel, July 28, 3868_

_Damn, I'm getting aroused just from thinking about it…_ Liara thought as they made pleasant conversation with the press crew that, well, pressed in from all sides. "John" She leaned in closer to Shepard, leaning her head against his and attracting a number of holo-cam clicks. "Should I clear a path using biotics?"

"Nah, according to Anderson, 'no curb-stomping the media people', bad press, you know." Shepard whispered conspiratorially, grinning. "But he didn't say anything about lifting them."

"Hmm, well I guess we all have 'magnetic boots' and the gravity systems are just going to happen to… malfunction." Liara said, grinning before the press crews standing on their tiptoes found themselves pushing themselves away from the suddenly gravity-less deck of the Citadel, allowing Shepard's crew to make a quick and dramatic exit, stomping and pretending to have magnetized boots. Once the crew were well away from the now extremely mobbed restaurant, all the floating press people came crashing back to the deck at once, much to the amusement of the other patrons, who had been unaffected.

The complaint the manager of Serrice Diners filed would eventually read "Regarding: Localized gravitational anomaly only affecting nosey sentients with excessive numbers of holo-cams." But that's another story altogether.

The crew made their way back to the Normandy, which was currently using its shields to scare away the reporters surrounding it. One, an Asari, had thrown a small pebble at the shimmering barrier to test it, and then they'd all taken a collective step back when the barrier had flared and the stone had ricocheted away at high speed. Joker had overcharged the shields then on purpose, since he was annoyed at not even being able to swing the Dual Proton Cannons about effectively with the crowd, and it had achieved the desired effect. The barrier, which would not actually harm anything colliding with it, merely stop it relative to the ship (unless it registered as an attack in which case most of the energy would be deflected and some dispersed over the surface of the energy bubble), was now surrounded by a ring of no-man's-land. The crew marched through the no-man's-land and through the barrier without further incident, leaving behind the reporters outside the ship.

Needless to say, thanks to Gardner's skills and the sheer size of the Range, it became the partying area of the Normandy, though for some reason Joker had already had the bar and everything else programmed in the targeting range's computers for the solid-light holograms and nanolathes to deal with on command. "Hey brother." A voice similar to but somewhat lower than John's said, causing Liara and John to break their lip-lock in a corner of the Range (the other corner tables were occupied by Ashley and Kaidan, Chakwas and Gardner, and Tali and her holo-console respectively) and look up at the man who cast a shadow over them in his Cybran Heavy Armour, helmet tucked under his arm.

* * *

A/N: I hope my second-ever attempt at writing a lemon didn't go too badly…

I will keep posting this until I catch up to the point in time where I paused SupCom: The Thirteenth, aka October 31, 3868. It'll be fewer chapters than you might think, but for the sake of continuity I need to catch up to there first.


	2. Brothers in Arms

A/N: Am disappointed by lack of reviews, but understand, SupCom: The Thirteenth is so much more exciting that this seems inconsequential, but some plot devices in here are absolutely critical to storyline progression and understanding in SupCom: ME 2.

ALSO, I WARN YOU THAT THERE WILL BE SMUT UP TO ABOUT CHAPTER 3, then, we all know what'll happen next.

* * *

Chapter 2: Brothers in Arms

_Range, CSC Normandy, July 28, 3868_

Liara frowned; the man looked almost exactly like John, minus a couple of circuits and plus a few centimetres in height. "You are…"

"Name's James Shepard, miss. John, why didn't you tell me you got a girlfriend?" James was tapping his foot, which reminded Liara of how Tali would tap her foot sometimes. "And why didn't you tell me our Ash finally got herself a man?" James indicated over to where a slightly inebriated Ashley was literally all over Kaidan, pinning him flat on his back, straddling him, and tearing at his clothes while her lips were glued to his.

"Huh, well I think it's time to remind them to go back to their room." John muttered before shouting, careful not to deafen Liara, who was on his lap, though this was slightly awkward as she was taller than he was "Hey Ash, go get a room! We don't need the Range smelling like sex for the night!"

"You got it, skipper!" She yelled back as she dragged Kaidan away, the man barely having time to grab his clothes up before being bodily dragged away by the taller woman. They took the elevator to the crew deck, or at least, that's where the indicator said it had stopped.

"James, this is Liara, Liara, my twin brother James."

James looked Liara over, extending a hand which Liara shook, then whistled "Damn, John, you always did like blue plus purple, didn't you?" He looked over at his brother, tilting his head.

"What are you talking about?" Liara looked between the two brothers confusedly.

John chuckled "My favourite colours were blue and purple, in that order, James's were purple and turquoise, well more of a dark green with blue tint, but whatever, in that order."

"Yeah, and don't forget, the Seven Hand colour was violet, not purple, so don't tease me on that." James waggled a finger at John before gesturing vaguely over his shoulder "besides, I'd say this bucket could look a whole lot better than the colour scheme you repainted it in after the Battle of the Citadel." John had personally supervised the painting of the outside of the Normandy in blue, only leaving a few black or white areas, though it did have the unfortunate side-effect of Liara being able to blend in with the hull sometimes.

John looked over James' shoulder and noticed Tali waiting for the elevator, wearing blue cloths over her enviro-suit and swaying from three-toed foot to three-toed foot, fiddling with her holoconsole, and standing EXACTLY where James had gestured before. She was standing with her side to the elevator call console, out of the way of the elevator door in case Wrex should decide to join the party abruptly. "And what colour scheme would you suggest, brother of mine?" John asked, wondering if James knew "bucket head" was a derogatory name for Quarians when he'd used the term "bucket" for the Normandy.

"Purple with dark blue-green turret tops, obviously, that would be a very nice combo, and grey with purple patterns would work well for decorative streaks. Ideally add some curves to this ship, make it less of a bucket and more of an hourglass shape on the outside, make the wings slimmer and more graceful, but increase the engine power and add another set of thrusters on the outsides of the wings. Then make the back side of the ship larger to accommodate more power generation capacity."

John had been running over a mental checklist, okay, so Tali didn't have a purple helmet or teal topside to her suit, and she didn't have purple patterns on her grey scarves and stuff. But she did have curves, an hourglass shape, slim and graceful limbs with plenty of thrust power (witnessed from punching Geth in the face), and a rather large butt. Liara seemed to have realized the same thing from the amused look she exchanged with her boyfriend "Oh really…" John deadpanned, still looking over James' shoulder as Tali entered the elevator and departed.

"Yeah, what are you looking at? Is something on my shoulder?" James looked back and saw nothing suspicious there, nor was anything odd happening behind him. John and Liara simply laughed at his expression "Oh I see, just annoying me, huh? Well, bro, I wanted to tell you, I'm joining the crew." John's eyebrows went up and James shrugged "Mom's orders."

John nodded "Ah, I see…"

Liara frowned "Aren't you a Coalition Marine? Why did your mother order you here?"

"Didn't John tell you about our mom? Hannah Shepard, Conqueror of Torfan, Glassmaker of the Order, One of the Elite Four Commanders?"

A look of understanding dawned on Liara's face "Oh yeah, he did tell me, the Elite Four are ranked just below the Avatar of War, Elite Commander and Supreme UEF Commander, aren't they?"

"Well technically the UEF part of the Elite Four IS the Supreme UEF Commander, General Hackett, and Seth is one of the Board of Generals of the Seraphim Republic, but that's beside the point." John pitched in. "So yeah, mom does have the authority to order us around, though if she tries to order me away from you, we'll have to remind her that you're not part of the Coalition Military and she has no authority over you." He nuzzled Liara's head, rubbing his nose along the sort-of ridge that went along her jaw line and up along her head crest to the back of her head, where they met in a sort-of flare. She turned and pressed her lips to his again for the loving gesture.

James rolled his eyes "I think I should leave you two alone for now, get a room… where's my quarters at?"

"Go to Room 14." John answered when they broke apart. James nodded, gesturing with his eyes that John should get back to kissing his girlfriend.

"I hope you have a good time, James Shepard, oh, and don't mind Wrex if he's rude." Liara called as James turned to leave.

"Understood, Liara, have fun with my brother. Oh, by the way, John, Chakwas says it's time to give you the antidote to the inhibitor" He gestured pointedly at John's crotch "but I hope I don't hear too… much… noise." He finished slowly as his hair was buffeted in the wind of Liara using a biotic Charge to reach the elevator, grabbing John en route, the elevator had just arrived since Liara had biotically pressed the call button as soon as James said "Chakwas". James blinked stupidly before saying rather dryly "that was fast…" and turning to head for the elevator to go to the Crew Deck. "Damn, they couldn't wait up for me…"

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, July 28, 3868_

They'd walked through the door as if nothing had happened, noting James and Tali talking about the newest issues on the galactic stage in the hall. They'd shared a smile as the other two's conversation turned to engineering-related topics and then made their way into John's quarters, which Liara had used every day since the night before Ilos.

In but seconds, Liara was tearing off John's clothes, flinging them aside as John helped her out of her own clothes, pinned under her on the bed. Their tongues were expressing their frustration at the week of forced abstinence from real lovemaking, forcefully stroking one another, the pink and purple flesh pushing against each other and lovingly stroking one another as the two divested themselves of all remaining clothing.

"Embrace Eternity…" Liara established the Union, her pupils dilating, just before she impaled herself on John's fully hardened member. "It's… uh… so good Coalition medicines are… ooh… fast-acting." Liara ground out as John pounded up into her sopping wet snatch. True, he wasn't as large as he could have been and what some Asari claimed humans could be, but his skill level… "Ooh… Fuck yes! Harder!" He'd found her g-spot again within only a few strokes, and right now he was hammering into it, into her, with all the skill he had displayed last time.

_Damn, Liara, you're so fucking hot and wet! And even tighter than last time!_ Shepard thought before he realized she could perceive his thoughts. _And the soft ridges… that's just icing on the cake, love._ Somewhere in the back of his mind, his passive firewalls were again dissipating the continuous dark stream of psionic energy that seemed to be an unconscious but integral part of Liara, but if the firewalls considered it a threat, and it didn't affect Liara's perception of the Union, then Shepard would let the firewalls do what they were made for.

_And you're so fucking good at this, John!_ Liara thought back as she spread her legs further, arched her back and bore down on Shepard harder, her breasts in front of Shepard's face, with the result that he latched onto a nipple with his mouth and tongue while still thrusting up into her, holding onto her by the hips as he kept hitting her g-spot. She cried out in ecstasy and closed her eyes as she savoured the feeling of his wet, warm mouth applying gentle suction to her breast while his cock hit her sweet spot over and over. It didn't take long before she cried out mentally _Ooh Shepard I'm close, keep going!_ John switched breasts, leaving the first one to dry slowly in the air of the room as it jiggled with every thrust, Liara mewling at the sudden coolness while her other nipple received the same treatment, with some light nipping this time. It was on one particular nip that her eyes rolled up, her back arched further, and she ground out through her teeth, holding back a scream, "John I'm gonna cum!" just before her juices squirted from around John's cock on the next thrust in, making a louder squelching noise than the previous thrusts.

_Oh fuck Liara!_ John shouted mentally as Liara's hot wet love tunnel clamped down on his dick like a vice, slowing down his thrusts but elevating the pleasure even further as the walls of her slick cavern constricted "I don't think I can hold it much longer…" He said through gritted teeth, watching Liara still riding her high above him and feeling her muscles spasm around him.

_Well then don't hold it in, cum in me, John, I want to feel you cum splashing into me again… It's been so long…_ She looked down at him lovingly as she rode out the last of her orgasmic waves of bliss. John sighed before letting himself go, thrusting violently into her a couple times, eliciting a groan from Liara, before his balls and cock tightened and shot his jizz into Liara's light purple cunt. Liara moaned as she felt her man's warmth spread in her, filling her up and some leaking into her womb. They held each other tightly and lovingly as John shot off another few spurts and slowly softened, before he slid out of her when she moved herself to be more comfortable atop her lover.

"Liara, Union with you… nothing I've ever imagined compared to it, I just wanted you to know."

Liara giggled at the cheesiness of the words, then looked up "I've never experienced anything like Union with you either, Shepard, I love you." She kissed him, which he eagerly returned.

They broke apart for the sake of not drowning Shepard in Liara's spit "I love you too, Liara." They laid together in a comfortable silence, Liara rolling off of Shepard to his side, before drifting off to sleep after their quick, relatively rough, and needy Union.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, August 2, 3868_

John and James spent some time over the next few days catching up, Tali and Liara sitting with them quite often to listen in and ask questions. James never noticed anything, but the rest of the crew sure did… as evidenced by one particular encounter between Wrex, John and Liara, near bedtime.

"Say, John, your brother…" Wrex began slowly as they sat together at the mess table.

"What about James? He did something or said something to annoy you?"

"Well besides the fact that I never figured out exactly who put that bucket of water over my doorway as a prank…" Wrex scratched his head plate "Not really, but do you Shepard men have a tendency to be xenophiles?"

"Ah, you mean the way he's spent a lot of time talking to Tali lately." John nodded "It does seem so, doesn't it? And we also tend to be at least slightly oblivious, right?"

Wrex grinned "Yeah, I mean, it's kind of obvious Tali was at one point interested in you," Liara tensed the arm around John's shoulder slightly, drawing his closer possessively, causing John to get a warm and fuzzy feeling that she was all possessive over him "but I think it's transferred over to James now, especially because she knows she doesn't have a chance with you and James has a lot more common interests with her. Also, I think the fact that you guys look nearly the same, other than height, helped."

"Hmm, that's good." Liara said, pulling John toward her some more, well, considering their similar heights, it was more of a matter of pulling them closer to each other.

"Why's that?"

"I won't need to kill my favourite Quarian Machinist for trying to steal my man." She nuzzled Shepard.

"That's sweet, Liara, but as you said to me before, 'I am not looking for a protector', but I wouldn't mind having one…" John leaned his head against Liara's.

This was when Wrex decided to discreetly, or as discreet as Krogan could be, leave the table, just before he changed his mind "Guys, get a room."

"Oh we will… it's nearly bedtime anyways." Liara said as she pulled John along, though he didn't need much of a tug to get moving. They came face-to-face at the elevator with James and Tali, who were debating Mass Effect shielding configurations the Migrant Fleet Marines could use for upgrades. Garrus was trapped in the back of the elevator, facepalming.

"If you have multiple layers with many small power cores, there's far more redundancy in the design." Tali argued, hands on her hips and her body language obviously "Not one step back." In her environment suit, which she preferred to her Aeon Light armour.

"Redundancy doesn't matter if there's too little power to stop anything." James had his arms crossed over his chest defensively "For example, it'll have a difficult time dealing with rapid-fire weapons like Gauss SMGs or Gauss LMGs, since they'll cut through the layers before the Marine can reach cover. We know how dangerous suit breaches are for your people, the Migrant Fleet can't afford to lose that many Marines from what you've told me."

Tali helmet-palmed "James, you should stop thinking in Coalition terms, I mean, a Gauss Pistol could punch through walls with ridiculous ease with its high-powered penetrator rounds. Typical Council Space weapons, well, a crate would provide adequate cover for at least a little while."

"That's true, I guess, but Geth weaponry is a lot more powerful than typical Council Space weapons, the Migrant Fleet Marines fight them on a regular basis, no?"

"Whatever, I still think redundant systems are better assuming the same amount of net power." Tali said just before she noticed the fact that Liara, John and Garrus were ALL waiting for them to move out of the way. "Oh, sorry" She stepped out of the elevator and James followed with a nod to John and Liara.

"Hey, Liara, dragging him back to your little love nest?" He grinned as the two lovebirds flushed pink and purple respectively.

"Yes, now can you move?" Liara replied bluntly, gesturing to one side, still blushing.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, August 2, 3868_

Liara treated John to a striptease, proving his never-voiced hypothesis that all Asari were able to dance sensually with ridiculous ease as she made her body flow in the empty space in the room. The rooms had to be quite large to allow the under-bed space to function as an armour locker, after all, so there was plenty of space for Liara to move, and move she did. Shepard was almost convinced that there was some sort of soft, romantic music in the background simply by watching her move, slowly flowing her way out of her overalls and then sliding off her wine-red lingerie before removing John's clothes, dancing around him as she did so before finally leaning in, their entire fronts rubbing against one another's skin, and beginning the Union with the classic phrase of "Embrace Eternity."

Her pupils flared as she turned and bent over the back of the bed, swaying her hips invitingly and looking back at Shepard. _Come on, John, take me. Take me now._ Her mental voice flowed around John like honey as he stepped up, touching her once with his fingers to make sure she was ready, which she was, before slamming his member home in one stroke. Both of them groaned as she welcomed the intrusion and he felt her welcome in the form of her muscles shivering and rippling around him. Her tightness made him suddenly thankful he was somewhat underdeveloped in size, since if his dick was as large as James', it might hurt for Liara to accommodate him. He started off slow but them sped up once he'd found her g-spot again, thanks to the nature of Asari Unions, finding it was easy if you tried, since you knew how much pleasure your partner was getting. Liara bit her lip, mentally chanting _Fuck yes, John, that's perfect, ooh… hit it harder! Uh yes… fuck me, fuck me faster!_

Being the dutiful boyfriend he'd always wanted to be someday ensured that John followed the prompt, speeding up his pace as their flesh slapped together. Quiet squelching noises from the amount of juices Liara's sopping cunt was putting out filled the room, along with their sounds of pleasure. After getting into a steady pace, John slid one hand down to Liara's toned belly before he moved it up to cup the underside of her right breast, feeling the firm, supple flesh jiggle with every stroke and squeezing it gently, savouring the feeling of it holding its shape but still oozing through his fingers slightly. His other hand followed to knead her left breast as he kept up his pace, Liara's mewls of pleasure speeding up as he squeezed the two globes he held in his hands. _Uh, yes, Shepard, squeeze them like that… no, harder!_ She squealed mentally and let out a long moan when John obeyed and kneaded more firmly, rubbing and pinching her nipples with the gaps between his fingers. "Ooh, I'm getting close, John, faster, harder!" She cried out, her eyes beginning to get unfocused from the sensory input and her orgasm building up.

John moved his left hand down to her clit and tweaked it gently as he whispered into her ear, or where her ear would be were she human "Cum for me, baby."

His response was "Uh yes John fuck MEEEEEEEEEE!" the squeal ended with a keening wail as Liara's cum splashed against John's cock and eventually spurted out from around it as John kept going, letting Liara ride out her high. "Uh…" Liara groaned as she slumped forward onto their bed, shivering from her orgasm and mewling in pleasure as Shepard dutifully knelt behind her and licked up her juices.

Shepard's firewalls were still registering the dark flow of… whatever… being neutralized, while he did his job as a good boyfriend and swallowed down what was left of his girlfriend's cum, still oozing from her after the climax. He shivered slightly at the air in the room coming into contact with his still stiff prick, which had been soaked by Liara's tight vagina but was now being ignored, since the Cybran was focused on pleasing her as much as he could. He wasn't up to par in size, so he had to rely on skill to keep Liara satisfied with their sex life. John plunged in with his tongue and rubbed up and down the inside of her lips with his fingers as she grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged him closer, backing up into his face.

She detected the earlier thoughts and frowned for a moment _Why the insecurity, Shepard?_ Liara's voice asked sultrily in his mind as she purred in pleasure at Shepard's work, moving her body sinuously in response to his naturally gifted tongue and fingers assaulting her from the inside. She wiggled her body further back into his face at the wonderful intrusion of his tongue and moaned in pleasure as he applied fingers.

John was uncharacteristically staying completely hard as he felt Liara's muscles clench gleefully at his intrusion, milking his fingers and tongue for all they were worth before he removed his tongue and added a third finger, savouring the heat and wetness of his girlfriend. He used his now-free tongue and lapped up her juices that leaked out around his fingers with every squelching thrust. _I love the way your fingers move in me, John._ She thought to him as he curled them slightly while up against her g-spot, rubbing across it with the pads of his fingers while his tongue worked at constantly stimulating the inside of the labia in a most pleasurable way.

_God, you're so wet, Liara._ Shepard thought as he scrambled to keep up with the amount of sweet nectar her pussy secreted while stimulating other nerve points along Liara's back with his spare hand, sending pleasurable shivers down Liara's spine and pulses of sweet juices dribbling from her. Liara was basking in the afterglow of her climax and in the loving ministrations of her boyfriend, and was simply moaning and sighing in pleasure as she laid there on her chest, trying to will her legs to stop trembling from the pleasure her human was giving her. _I heard that, Liara._ Shepard grinned into her vagina as he lapped up more of her juices, including some that trailed their way down his fingers, just above his face.

It didn't take long for Liara to reach climax again, with a shrill "John I'm gonna cum!" Shepard had enough time to close his eyes and move his fingers so that most of the juice jetted straight into his mouth as Liara squirted for the second time. He slowly continued fingering her as he, with eyes still squeezed shut, felt some of the rest of Liara's sweet essence spray onto his face. Once she'd finished squirting, he started wiping off her nectar with his spare hand, his other hand still gently rubbing her to ease her down from her high, and shoved the juices hungrily into his mouth. _My Asari tastes absolutely delicious…_ He thought, savouring the taste and swishing it around his mouth. _Oh right, that's offensive._

He wiped the rest off onto his arm and opened his eyes to find Liara frowning at him "Why's that offensive, Shepard? You're mine, and I'm yours, what's wrong with that?"

He finally removed his other hand from her lips and sucked the fingers clean. John kept his eyes on Liara, who got up and sat on the bed beside him, watching him, her eyes occasionally darting to his mouth sucking on the fingers, before responding to her. "It's just… it doesn't feel right talking about women possessively, like I'm talking about a piece of meat." John shivered and drew his knees up onto the bed, hugging them to his chest "I always hated it when men talked about women like that in vids…"

"That's really sweet of you, Shepard, but I like it when you call me yours, it makes me feel closer to you than me calling you mine does. I love you, Shepard, and I love it when you address me possessively when we're alone." She said before noticing he still had a rather hard problem to deal with and leaned forward, placing her weight on her arms as she leaned in closer and kissed Shepard gently on the lips before pulling back a little "I think I should take care of that for you." Liara said breathily, watching his eyes, still dark with lust, almost reflecting her own eyes' darkness during Union.

John, having planted his feet on the ground again, waggled a finger at her between them and shook his head, smiling "No, no, my dirty Asari, I do believe we should wash up now, shouldn't we?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Liara blushed even more purple than she already was, her skin covered with a light sheen of perspiration from their pleasurable activities together. _Wouldn't that waste the ship's water supply for no good reason?_ She thought as he tugged on her arm, walking toward the bathroom.

Shepard, having heard through the Union, grinned "You forget, Liara, that the Coalition reclaims all its waste, including bathwater, and fabricates new water with the mass furnished, and with the low level of impurities the process is more energy-efficient than recycling the water. There is no worry of the Normandy ever running out of water unless the power cores, all of them plus the secondary generators and the mini cores on the repair drones and matrices, are stopped."

"Ah, alright" Shepard had turned the shower on to just the right amount, the warm water softly descending on them, and looked at her in a way that made Liara feel as if she was burning up under his gaze, and shift uncomfortably from the moisture that was gathering between her legs again.

She wondered where her newfound need for sex had come from. Before she had met Shepard, one orgasm from her fingers was generally enough to keep her from thinking about sex for a week or more, depending on circumstances. Now, she craved as much as she could get whenever she got started, and depending on circumstances would need to cum at least daily before she could stop thinking about it for a while. Perhaps it was her body recognizing a good mate when it found one?

_Ooh, thanks for the compliment, Azure._ Shepard grinned, but the grin instantly vanished when Liara frowned and the Union disengaged for no apparent reason "Did I say something wrong just now?"

To Liara, he sounded worried, and she thought it was sweet that he was so worried about hurting her feelings. "No, it's just that 'Azure' is a term commonly used among Asari for, well…" she gestured down to her crotch.

"Oh, sorry love" Shepard scratched his head awkwardly, looking down at the ground. They stood in silence under the warm water, letting it rinse away their sweat and grime of the day for a few moments before Liara advanced on Shepard again. The moisture between her legs had become an itch her fingers weren't long enough to scratch, and she wanted Shepard to scratch it for her.

She took her semi-flaccid cock in one delicate blue hand and leaned in to whisper in her boyfriend's ear "Shepard, I have an itch I can't scratch… could you help me with it?"

John Shepard stiffened as he felt his Asari's hand stroking him softly as if afraid of hurting him, and felt her hot breath on his ear. "Of… of course, love, whatever you want."

Liara pouted cutely, feeling the need to simply push her man down onto the seat in the shower, straddle him, and ride him until they climaxed. She only did the first step, slowly pushing him down onto the seat. "Don't you want it too?" She said, stroking herself with two fingers as she spread her light purple lips before Shepard's eyes with her fingers, showing him just how wet she was and how much she wanted him before straddling him and grinding against one of his legs, one hand pumping his cock slowly and leaning close, her eyes flaring black again "I want you to take me, Shepard, fast and rough. I need to be fucked, forget lovemaking for now and just skewer me with your dick until you cum in me." She said breathily, re-initiating the Union as their minds and senses began to intertwine, each feeling the other's senses vaguely.

John Shepard was by no means stupid, realizing exactly how horny his girlfriend still was and how she ached for a good pounding. _You do realize that a typical dildo could probably deliver a larger and better pounding than I could possibly pull off?_ He thought to her.

_It's different when it's someone you love and really would not mind being with for the rest of their life, you should know that, John._ Liara said, smiling down at John as she positioned herself over him and sank down onto him, taking him in to the hilt, before starting to bounce on his cock, letting out small pleasured gasps as he coordinated with her perfectly.

While thrusting up into Liara in sync with her movements, John told her mentally: _That's good, because otherwise I'd be losing the woman I love to a sex toy._ He nipped at the tops of her breasts, suckled at the blue flesh there, and left light purple suction marks while Liara moaned.

_Technically, I'm not exactly a woman, John… ooh, where did you learn this?_ Liara commented on his suckling of her skin. Then she gasped as John's hands began kneading her butt in time with the thrusts and the suckling and nip marks being left along the tops of her breasts, which tingled all the way down to her core, which was being more or less assaulted by her lover, rubbing against her g-spot on nearly every thrust.

After a short while, John's thrusting grew more erratic and his breathing laboured. Liara could feel her partner approaching climax, and that spurred on her own climax as Shepard suckled on her breasts. Her back arched into him and her internal muscles contracted wildly, nearly strangling the life out of John's dick as he tried to move it after a particularly intense contraction. After the beginning of a long, drawn-out moan of pleasure was her usual deluge of juices as her muscle spasms died down to a more manageable level. Shepard joyfully watched her expression of pure bliss, eyes rolled upward and mouth half-open as she twitched and shivered, her muscles gripping his cock and milking it while her fluids squirted out around him.

He was far too close to hold back as he thrust into her one last time and started spurting into her, even while she was squirting her own fluids around him and out of her, he was putting his own fluids in. He held her closely while he moved a couple more times, savouring the last of her orgasmic contractions while he began to soften inside Liara. He held her shivering blue body to his for a few moments while she caught her breath before she got up, his cock finally slipping out of her, followed by a thin trail of mixed cum, of both himself and Liara, and the Union slowly dissipated between them. "Hmm, I wonder how that tastes…" Liara gathered up the string of cum on a slender blue finger and licked it off, eyes widening "Not bad, a bit salty… let's rinse off and get back to bed, I want to cuddle."

"Cuddling sounds really nice right now" John said while they cleaned each other up "there's nothing other than Union with you that compares to falling asleep next to you."

"That's just cheesy." Liara deadpanned as she worked more of her and John's mixed cum out of her body and into her hand, which then went straight into her mouth and down her throat. Asari fine muscle control developed over decades of life really came in useful during and after sex…

Twenty minutes later, they were warm, dry, and completely intertwined in each other under their blankets, enjoying each other's presence in the way that only lovers could. "I love you, Liara T'Soni." John mumbled sleepily to the Asari in question, their eyes still locked to one another's, though their eyelids were drooping.

"I love you too, John Shepard." Liara whispered before they both drifted off into sleep, holding each other and at peace, as if nothing else in the galaxy mattered, not the Geth, not the Reapers, nothing.

* * *

NEXT UP: MEET THE PARENTS (Yes, there's a reason I made Benezia survive)

A/N: The foreshadowing could not have been more obvious, eh? (And I'm not referring to James/Tali. I'm referring to something else…)

REVIEW!


	3. Motherzillas Inbound?

A/N: Yes, thank you for telling me SupCom: The Thirteenth was more exciting.

THIS IS NOT A SMUT DUMP! The lemons were only included to make the relationship seem healthier, since they've already done it once, no reason not to do it again. From this point onward, no more lemons, I think.

Also, Shepard as Liara says will always refer to John, unless specifically stated. James will be James.

* * *

Chapter 3: Motherzillas Inbound?

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, August 5, 3868_

"So I got a message from mom yesterday…" James started, drumming his fingers on the table as the crew looked on in silence. Even Wrex was silent in suspense, un unheard-of development, since the big Krogan's usual response to suspense was to snort derisively.

"Tell me about it." John growled in irritation at his twin's annoying tone.

"Mom wants you to come back to Procyon, pronto." The entire table held their breaths "Benezia's waking up, oh, and so is Saren."

"WHAT?" Ashley had hammered her fists to the table, standing up before pointing an accusing finger at her childhood friend "Didn't you kill that bastard?" She sounded uncharacteristically angry for a follower of the Way, which meant John Shepard leaned back in fear and Liara gained a slight blue glow of biotic energy in warning, her eyes narrowing at the woman.

"Ash, calm down." Kaidan, sitting next to Ashley, tugged his lover's arm "There was a reason Shepard brought along the CAR when he headed off to Ilos. It's a lot harder for the Council to turn on us and deny the whole thing if we have the same Spectre they thought was responsible for the mess around to stick in their faces when the time comes around."

"Fine, Alenko, but I'll remember this when my mom asks for my latest status report." Ashley grumbled. Kaidan gulped nervously, Grand Crusader Ariel Williams was one of the top Commanders in the Aeon military, and if things went as he hoped, she would eventually be his mother-in-law. Sadly for him, she was also one of the youngest commanders and probably the most volatile, most stubborn, and least aloof.

The result was that if Ashley expressed disappointment at him in even one message, they'd probably have to elope, since parental consent was still a part of marriage in the Aeon Illuminate. It was in these times that Kaidan wished he was UEF or Cybran, if only for the free love thing, though that helped result in a much greater divorce rate in the UEF and he was too scared to go for the implants and circuitry required to become a Cybran. After all, the older you were the more difficult and painful it was to adjust to the changes to your body and mind. "Understood, Ashley." He squeaked and frowned, where had that come from?

In the meantime, Liara was talking with Shepard, her arms wrapped around her man, which was part of the reason most of the table was watching Ashley and Kaidan instead "It's good to hear my mother's okay, though it sure did take a long time for her to wake up…"

"I think you guys should do this fluffy stuff after the meeting, some people are allergic to fluff." James whispered, leaning toward John across the long mess table.

"I agree… James, is that it for what you had to tell the entire crew?"

"Yep, let's leave Ash and Kaidan to their discussion. I had something I wanted to talk to Tali about anyways…" The group dispersed throughout the ship while John and Liara rolled their eyes at James' extreme obliviousness.

When the crew had mostly gone back to whatever they were doing before the meeting was called, The two were still wrapped up in one another at the loveseat they'd drawn up to the mess table, cradling one another, Liara running her hands through John's short hair, savouring the texture under her fingers and thinking about the differences between humans and Asari. They were almost imperceptible when looking at the two species side by side, especially when human women were concerned. Originally, she'd found her Shepard's physical body to be more interesting than sexy, since her original standards of beauty would have made her consider human women to be more attractive physically, but now, she'd come to love her man's body just as much as she loved his mind.

Shepard was thinking too "I think it's time to introduce you to my mother."

Liara froze in place, if it was anything like Asari introducing their mates to their mothers or parents if both still lived, that was a major step forward in their relationship. "But what if…"

John shushed her with a brief, lingering kiss before he drew back to look her in her bottomless blue eyes "She'll love you, Liara don't worry, my mother isn't as mad as the Batarians accuse her of being." Hannah Shepard had gained a reputation among the Batarian Syndicates after she'd first broken their fortress at Torfan with a Liberator Strategic Nuke (aka EMP Nuke) then excavated it and extracted the survivors as POWs before glassing the whole area with a series of Strategic Nuke strikes.

Liara leaned her forehead against Shepard's "I sure hope so, because if human society is anything like Asari society, parental approval is quite important to the couple if they want to stay together in the long-term." Then she smiled at Shepard's sudden nervousness, reflected in him biting his lip "Most parents, of any species, can usually be persuaded by their children, no?"

"Yeah, but I'm not worried about my mother's reaction to me dating a non-human, I'm worried about your mother's reaction to me. I did shoot her after all…"

Liara silence him with a slender blue finger to his lips "No, love, you set her free from indoctrination, she'll remember that…" Her brow crinkled as she frowned "Will my mother's memory be damaged? Or her personality changed?"

Shepard moved up a little and kissed her crunched eyebrows, well, Asari had darkened skin patches instead, but it was still the same idea for signalling. "Don't worry, blue, the Cybran Assimilation process has been refined for over a thousand years, and Asari physiology was so easy to adapt it to that she'll be perfectly fine."

Liara rested her head on John's shoulder as she pushed him back into the loveseat "That would be good, wouldn't score points with your future mother-in-law if you damaged her memory." Liara smiled up at her lover contentedly, inhaling his very light, somewhat sweet scent. "When are we going to Procyon?"

"Joker's plotted course for Procyon as soon as my mother and Doctor Brackman summoned us, after all, he's still the representative guy of the collective Cybran Nation in the Coalition of Species." John nuzzled Liara's head crest, inhaling her sweet scent and sighing happily "Our ETA should be…" He mentally brought up the wrist holoprojector he wore, since he didn't wear armour inside the ship anymore, and checked it visually. Cybran implants could not input data, only output commands from the brain and screen it from all incoming psychic-type attacks, so he actually had to look "About sixty minutes until the coils charge enough to jump that far." They were, after all, nearly halfway around the galaxy from Procyon.

"That's enough for a quickie, right, Shepard?" Liara looked up at her boyfriend expectantly ad hopefully.

Shepard looked morose as he replied "Sorry, Liara, but I don't think there's enough time to get rid of the classical circuitry pulse pattern that indicates that state of relaxedness before my mother notices, and I don't think I can make you cum more than twice in thirty minutes, since we'd have to wash up and dress for the occasion. I also don't think your mother would appreciate us visiting her smelling like sex."

Liara pouted, which to Shepard was completely adorable, and fixed him with a look "But Shepard, I don't need to cum more than twice, it's just we didn't do anything yesterday or this morning…" She squirmed on him a little, wiggling her breasts into his side.

"Well, I'm thinking of the long-term… our future together." John pulled her a little tighter to him. "I want to make a good impression with your mother."

Liara tilted her head back and locked eyes with her boyfriend "That's considerate of you, Shepard, it seems you are more like the typical Asari than I'd thought, always thinking in the long term… I want you to promise though that you'll do what I want you to do to me tonight."

"As long as there's no permanent harm and it's not a very bad idea… oh, by the way, I'm not, unlike typical men, into bondage and pain." He'd spotted Liara doing research in the last few days, so it was a little more than a bit worrying.

"Don't worry, it's not a crappy idea, or at least with my capabilities, it's not." Shepard suddenly had a very good idea what he had gotten himself into, but if Liara wanted it… he would go ahead with what she wanted, besides, legend said it was actually quite good.

"That's nice to hear, I'm going to look forward to it." Liara sat up on the loveseat, watching her boyfriend lovingly. John let out a groan at the loss of contact, causing her to giggle before asking "Should we wear our armour?"

"I think we should, just in case." Shepard also sat up.

Liara started walking toward the elevator, for some reason swaying her hips seductively even though she didn't want to "John Shepard is afraid of the big bad Matriarch Benezia, isn't he?" She was quite pleased when she felt Shepard's hand pinch her butt, letting out a small squeak, and let his hand slip into her own as they fell into stride, walking toward the elevator. "Don't worry, Shepard, I'll keep you safe."

"I sure hope so, because I have no desire to die without spending my life with you first." Shepard rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her possessively, walking into the elevator.

Liara grinned at Shepard's action, it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside to be treated so, before a looming sense of foreboding overtook the momentary happiness at the thought of Shepard, despite the relatively long lives humans enjoyed, dying and leaving her behind. She turned and held him tighter to her, whispering into his ear "Shepard, when you talked about dying just now… I have this bad feeling, a bad feeling around the idea of you ending and leaving me."

John thought it was adorable, this sudden worry "Don't worry, Liara, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon." He smiled as he held her closer.

* * *

_Procyon, August 2, 3868_

Liara's vision tunnelled from nerves as she breathed brashly in the confines of the airlock as it cycled and opened, letting in the red rays of light from Procyon's sun and sky as they walked down the fabricated ladder to the ground, paved between the skyscraper blocks, the distance between them suddenly seeming immense to Liara. She suddenly felt small as she looked at the towers, each hundreds of meters on a side and kilometres tall, and gulped in nervousness.

"We're supposed to meet my mother at the Central Gate Complex, which should be over there, only about a kilometre or so, let's boost over." John pointed, and James, Liara, Tali and himself engaged their quantum propulsion packs, covering the distance in less than fifteen seconds, flying over the heads of the people in their ground transit buses. Only military personnel were allowed to boost in cities, other forms of private transit were forbidden to be used in cities, so as to relieve congestion.

Once they'd reached the Central Gate Complex and gotten inside out of the sun, they went to a sixteenth floor restaurant that Hannah Shepard had told them to wait at. The floors and such were, as typical, reinforced and structurally fielded, which made it not so impossible for the open-air restaurant, completely empty other than the balconies above it being filled with commanders spending time off, to suddenly be invaded by a large Molecular Ripper barrel intruding from one side, coming to rest with its two-meter-tall barrel assembly ominously towering over Liara, its angled barrel literally swallowing her up in its enormous maw, the bottom of the barrel coming to rest almost touching her feet while the top edge went far over her head.

Liara froze in place "Uh, Shepard…" before boosting out of the barrel and dragging Shepard along behind her as the ACU standing outside the restaurant stood up straight, looming over the balcony, and emitted a thunderous chuckling. John rolled his eyes as he recognized why the balconies seemed crowded and everyone wore armour.

"Hey mom, you did have the safety on, right?" James asked as he held Tali back from diving to assist. Ash and Kaidan were rolling on the ground laughing at the antics, while Garrus and Wrex, who'd tagged along, had their jaws, and mandibles where applicable, wide open.

"Of course, son, I'm not stupid." The arm went down from its perch on the open-air area and back to the matte black and red ACU's side before its head plates shifted and an airlock cycled, allowing Hannah Shepard to, wearing Cybran Medium Armour, fly out and land softly on the balcony while the ACU moved off to the garage for the machines. "Hey, John, nice to see my little boy's made a name for himself!" She slapped him on the back with enough force for him to stumble even in his Cybran Heavy Armour. "Hero of the Citadel eh? That's even better than 'Queen of the Black Sun' as they called me back when I was your age… a few years after that they started calling me and my friends the Elite Four, hah, what a joke, a bunch of kids being called that."

Hannah Shepard took off her helmet, revealing jet black hair with an angular but also rounded jaw line that was a lot rounder than her sons', and a face that was counted as quite attractive overall. At forty-three, she was still barely a tenth of her way through her life expectancy. She smiled at Liara, who was holding John's hand "It's good to see my son's finally gotten a girlfriend. James refused to tell me who it was…"

At this point, several holograms lit up along the table, showing Avatar of War Rhiza, Elite Commander Dostya, Doctor Gustaf Brackman, General Seth-Thauum, Grand Crusader Ariel Williams and General Hackett. "So, now that you know, Hannah, what were the results of our bet?"

"So, uh, would you mind taking your helmets off, mystery girls?" Hannah said nervously. "And stand with your partners?"

Shepard looked to the team and nodded, removing his helmet as well. "Liara and I are together, Ashley's with Kaidan, and James has been spending too much of his time talking to Tali." said Quarian covered her face mask in embarrassment.

"YEAH! WHOO! PAY UP BRACKMAN!" The various commanders shouted while Hannah buried her face in her hands and collapsed to her knees. "NOOOOOOO!"

"What happened here?" Liara asked, tilting her head. "Is your mother hurt?"

"Financially, yeah, I'm hurt. We made bets on who'd end up with whom. I just lost a crap-load of nanolathe credits." Hannah growled, getting back up from the ground "I bet on John and Ashley, you know, classical best friends thing. Ariel over there" she gestured to the Grand Crusader's dancing hologram "bet on Ashley with Kaidan. Brackman" The doctor had his face in his hands too "Bet that you'd not date anyone, instead eventually falling for a Cybran girl or Aeon woman besides Ash. Seth bet on you and Liara, and Hackett bet James would spend a lot of time with Tali. Rhiza and Dostya both bet you'd date Tali for some reason, and that Liara would date Kaidan." She finished.

Liara wasn't sure how to respond to the betting pool that had been on them, especially as Hannah Shepard had bet against her and Shepard. There wasn't anything really she could say if she had already displayed her disapproval by betting against them. John spoke first, however "Mom!" He said indignantly.

"Right, sorry, I should probably introduce myself to your first girlfriend, wouldn't make a good record if I didn't, now would it?" Hannah Shepard turned to face Liara, with the same warm brown eyes as John had. "I'm Hannah Shepard, Division Commander of the Cybran Nation and one-quarter of the Elite Four Commanders." She extended a black-armoured hand, the one that wasn't holding her helmet under her arm. "It's good to meet you, Liara T'Soni. By the way, call me Hannah; anything else makes me feel old."

Liara took it in a white and green armoured hand and shook it firmly "It is good to meet you too, Hannah."

"Well, now that we're done with that… what are your intentions toward my son?" Hannah Shepard set her jaw and glared after she finished. She had gotten this sort of thing when her now-deceased boyfriend, John and James' father, had introduced her to his mother, and young people were oh so fun to tease.

"Mom!" John hissed before Hannah silenced him with a hand held up in front of his face.

Liara felt about two millimetres tall under the glare "Er… well, I love John, and he loves me, we're going to see how it develops from there, but as John once said, I'm hoping for 'marriage, old age, and lots of little blue children'." She hoped she hadn't said anything wrong.

Hannah snorted derisively "Heh, well wait a while before any of those, alright? By Coalition standards these days I'm a bit young to be a mother, let alone a grandmother." Then she frowned "How old are you?"

"I am only one hundred and six…"

"Barely an adult by your people's standards, I know." Hannah nodded, and then narrowed her eyes "but doesn't the typical Asari in her Maiden stage, like you, generally feel the need for adventure and exploration, not settling down until the Matron Stage, when you're near five hundred years old?"

Liara bit her lip for a moment before answering "I am not sure, Hannah, but the idea of settling down with John after this whole Reaper mess is over with does not sound unattractive to me. I guess it is one of the unusual things about me… being an archaeologist instead of a mercenary, entertainer or commando being another." She shrugged.

Hannah nodded "Anyways, regardless of that, let's eat; we can talk over the food. This is a restaurant after all."

* * *

"That went surprisingly well." James commented off-handedly "I remember when I brought home my first girlfriend a couple years ago, Mom freaked out. She decided she didn't want any trouble and broke up with me a couple weeks later."

"How many girlfriends have you had?" Liara asked, wondering if that meant she was John's first girlfriend, how in the world had he become so skilled at sex then?

"Five, most of the relationships didn't last since they just couldn't keep up with my technical expertise." James winked roguishly.

John looked toward Tali who was walking on the other side of his brother. "I hope you find a tech-savvy girl someday, James."

James sighed, not noticing where his brother was looking "Yeah, I hope so too. Anyways, I should probably take you to Benezia's medical facility…"

John nodded "Yes, let's go."

* * *

John and James Shepard had left them alone, taking the crew with them to talk to the dozens of Asari that had followed Benezia and were now settling into society on Procyon, since they too were wanted within the Asari Republics. So now Liara was free to have her reunion with her mother in private before introducing her boyfriend. "Mom!" Liara flung herself at her mother, who wrapped her up in a tight hug. "It's good to see you're okay." She sniffled, her face buried in her mother's shoulder as she cried from joy.

"I'm fine, Little Wing, or rather, I'm fine now, though it takes some getting used to all these new capabilities and the sheer amount of data the Cybran Network holds…" Benezia stroked the back of her daughter's head gently, smoothing back the tails of her head crest. She looked much healthier now, face more rounded and the wrinkles gone. She seemed to have physically recovered from the aging brought on by her indoctrination, and her blue skin nearly glowed with new health. What really did glow were the thin circuitry patterns on the left side of her face, left there by the Cybran Assimilator Rifle's effects.

"How's your new home?" Liara asked as they sat "Has Procyon been kind to you? How are your accommodations?"

"Don't worry about me, Liara, everything has been fine on my end of things, the Cybrans are offering us refuge for as long as we require it. But how about you? How has your adventure treated you?"

Benezia could see Liara was almost bouncing in joy "We defeated Sovereign with ridiculous ease, oh, and I've gained a lot of extra power… not sure where it's from though…" The younger Asari scratched the back of her head and looked down at the ground as Benezia frowned in worry.

The Matriarch wiped the frown off before Liara could notice "when did this power increase start and how far has it gone?"

"Well it started after my first melding with Shepard, when I tried to make sense of the vision he got from the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime." She looked into space dreamily as she babbled on. Benezia shook her head sadly and rubbed her temples, this story sounded familiar… too familiar. "And then it seemed to speed up after our second melding, when I tried to make sense of things with the Cipher. Now my Lift and Throw have evolved to Propel, and my Singularity can be guided!"

"What's the duration on your Stasis? And how have your other powers changed." Benezia needed to know, if this sort of increase was uniform, there were only a few things it could mean…

"Well I actually had to cancel it after it stood there for five minutes, and I can hold up to twenty objects in my Singularity now… I can Warp a Geth Armature into scrap, and I can Propel a Geth Colossus up so far it smashes itself to bits coming back down. Is there anything wrong, mom?"

"Oh, no, not really, it's just that I guess you inherited a lot more power than I thought…" Benezia was one of the most powerful and influential Matriarchs, and her daughter's power was fast approaching hers…

"Mother, I wanted to ask…what do you think of John Shepard?" That almost took Benezia by surprise, but then again she had seen the way the two looked at one another, so it wasn't too much of a shock.

"He seems like a good man, an excellent soldier, a good mate for you, though it is rare for Asari to find a long-term mate so young, it's not unheard of."

"How did you… oh, right." Liara had been surprised by her mother's knowledge of her affairs right up until she remembered Benezia T'Soni wasn't considered one of the wisest Matriarchs for nothing.

"Guess? I could see the way he looked at you and the way you looked at him when you fought me on Noveria; though it's only become apparent since these" Benezia pointed at her circuits "freed me from the indoctrination. I wouldn't mind meeting the boy in private sometime."

* * *

"Mom wants to talk to you; we've talked enough for now." Liara told Shepard, her Shepard, who nodded and walked into the door from where he'd been waiting outside "Good luck, my love!"

"Thanks, Liara, for the vote of confidence." He walked into the living room of Benezia's new apartment. "I am honoured to meet you, Matriarch Benezia. My name is John Shepard." He felt like an idiot for his wording.

"I know who you are, John Shepard. I want to ask you about your relationship with my daughter" Benezia fixed John Shepard with a stare that scrutinized the human and gave John the impression that she could see through him as they sat down across from one another.

"I love Liara and I believe she loves me—" John started.

"I know that, I can see it in you two's eyes, but besides that, how far have you gone?"

John was caught by surprise "Well, uh…"

Benezia pressed for answers, this wasn't a time for the sagely wisdom and slow speed typical of conversations with Matriarchs, it was a time to get straight to the point "Have you two come close to Union yet?"

John felt extremely uncomfortable "Uh, we've done it, several times, in fact."

Benezia nodded approvingly "Good, that means Liara didn't turn out like her half-sisters did."

"Why, were they all afraid of it? And since when did Liara have half-sisters?"

"No, it's nothing if yours went smoothly. It's just that her half-sisters had some bad experiences relating to Union."

Shepard nodded "Ah, I understand, victims?"

Benezia looked saddened for a moment "Yes, they were victims… my first mate, their mother, took the younger two with her when she left to hunt down the elder child, who had run away from home. It took me a long time to get over the loss, but eventually I found another mate in me and my first mate's best friend, well, okay, more like competitor in the love triangle we were stuck in limbo in…" Benezia shrugged "She fathered Liara shortly before she was ostracized from Thessia and forbidden to have contact with me. She told me never to reveal her identity to Liara, or reveal my Little Wing's parentage, since it would only bring disdain upon her, as if it was not enough to be a pureblood on Thessia…"

"She just left you? Your first mate, I mean?"

"Yes, you'd think we Asari are above such things, but I still remember that morning three hundred years ago when I woke up to discover my bed empty, my three daughters gone along with their mother without so much as a proper letter of explanation, only a note." She snorted "I won't burden you with this any further, just make sure you keep Liara safe, she's all the family I really have left."

"Yes, Matriarch, of course, Matriarch."

"Now, me and my retinue, since we're still wanted in Council Space, have decided to stay on Procyon, what do you say to Liara tagging along with us for a night out?" Benezia laughed at the expression on Shepard's face, somewhere between horror and slack-jaws incredulity.

"I thought partying was exclusive to Maiden-stage Asari?" Shepard said when he managed to get his jaw working again.

Benezia waved it off "Nah, that's what we tell other people, but all of us do it occasionally, though Maidens do it most often." Then she frowned "Oh, you'd better tag along too with Liara…"

"Uh, alright… where are you all planning on going?"

"Well, we're planning on holding a party at Dostya's place, Seth, your mother, Hackett, Rhiza, Princess Rhianne, Ariel Williams and Doctor Brackman are all planning to attend. So, meet us there at… eight o'clock local time."

"Er…okay."

* * *

A/N: See, no more lemons.


	4. Meet the Collectors

A/N: Hell, it's about time…

* * *

Chapter 4: Meet the Collectors

_Procyon, August 2, 3868_

"You did NOT tell me Saren was in attendance." Shepard said flatly.

Benezia shrugged "Well if James told you guys the whole message you'd know he'd woken up too, and apparently like the fun-loving Spectre I knew before he got indoctrinated, he's enjoying himself." Saren was currently singing at the top of his lungs, dancing on the bar table and stripping out of his extraneous clothes as he went along drunkenly. Garrus tried to rush forward and prevent the male from embarrassing Turian-kind, but Wrex grabbed him around the waist and prevented him from doing so, using a headlock and waist-lock as Garrus shouted at the Krogan in indignation and Wrex just grinned. Tali had covered her eyes, or where her eyes would be, with one hand, then, when her HUD prepared a holo-render of what was behind the hand, she simply turned her head away.

This resulted in her staring at James' lips, which she suddenly noted were rather juicy-looking and appeared delicious without being too large. While James was laughing at Saren's performance in the blue-lighted room, the small orange circuits on the Turian's face and some on his neck pulsing in rhythm with the music, Tali was licking her lips behind her mask as she watched James' muscles move under his clothes.

Wrex had finally let Garrus go after Liara had poked him into submission, with biotically enhanced poking (more akin to being hit by a baseball bat repeatedly) "OW Ow, okay, I'm letting him go!" The big Krogan yelled defensively as he let Garrus go.

"For the record, Doctor, you're clashing with the lighting about as horribly as physically possible." Avatar of War Rhiza Sullivan (she never revealed her last name to others because it sounded too plain) commented, holding up a champagne flute while Brackman glared at her through narrowed eyes.

The orange-tinted hologram (what Brackman usually preferred) replied rather stiffly "You can blame Dostya for that, she insisted on this colour scheme, knowing perfectly well that I don't look as bad-ass in any other colour, even true colour for back when I actually had a body." Said Elite Commander was currently serving as the DJ, and replied to Brackman's evil eye with a wide grin and a thumb up.

Princess Rhianne Burke had gotten rid of most of her ceremonial robes, wearing only the innermost layer (usually in public non-ceremonial occasions, she'd wear the inner two layers) of clothing other than lingerie. She was out on the dance floor flowing with the music with grace and a presence that, according to Benezia "is roughly equal to a late Matron stage Asari, very impressive for one hundred and twenty-four years old."

"Wait, she's older than I am?" Liara frowned, her brow scrunching as she watched the total chaos with John holding onto her arm.

"Yep, humans tend to live four to five hundred years naturally, that's assuming we don't get killed first… right now one hundred twenty is still very old by UEF and Cybran standards, by Aeon standards, not so much." John supplied.

"Alright, thanks for the info, John, let's dance."

"I don't think that's such a good idea…" When she turned her big blue eyes on him and pouted her light purple lips, he caved pretty quickly "Alright, but…" She squealed in glee and dragged him off to the dance floor.

Garrus had finally dragged Saren down from the bar, eliciting booing from the Asari commandos present and more than a couple of the human women, and given him an anti-intoxicant. "Damn Vakarian, you just had to ruin my fun didn't you?"

Garrus grabbed the other Turian by the shoulders and glared at him, baring his teeth "Why were you so busy embarrassing yourself like that, huh? You're a disgrace if you act like that, completely uncontrolled and shit, Arterius."

Saren waved it off, his orange circuits pulsing and adding highlights to his grey scaly skin "Come off it, Vakarian, I was just celebrating being released from Sovereign's thrall, is that so wrong?"

"Well I guess not…"

"They look so adorable together, huh?" Hannah Shepard inclined her head at where Liara and Shepard were dancing, or trying to. She sat down on Benezia's left.

"Indeed, say, have you noticed…?" Benezia flicked her head toward John and Liara, who were on the right side of her, clearly displaying her new, thin and flexible Cybran circuitry to Hannah.

Hannah took a gulp from her vodka bottle "That my son dances with all the grace of an epileptic chicken? Yeah, I noticed, but I must say your daughter's more than making up for it." Liara was flowing with the music, though less gracefully than Rhianne

Benezia chuckled "I was going to say how badly Cybran Orange circuitry clashes with the blue skin of Asari, but that will do. Anyways, I was proposing that you guys introduce different colours of circuits, other than red or orange, since they both clash with blue or purple skin."

Hannah spread her hands helplessly "Sorry, but those are trademark colours of Cybran technology. UEF tech has the monopoly on blue and purple circuitry, The Aeon have their green and white, and Seraphim have yellow circuits, it helps us recognize design sources."

Seth had brought his wife along, as they had reconciled after the Seraphim War ended, even though it took a long time for her to forgive him for the deaths of two of their sons during the Exodus. He had failed to protect that particular group of the Separatist fleet effectively, and she'd blamed him for a little over a year afterward. Of course, they'd had more children since they got back together, as was evident from the somewhat swollen belly she sported. "It's odd to see how almost all species went roughly the same way." Benezia observed, watching the two Seraphim talk to the two Turians, both species had hardened skin patches, one set of mandibles in addition to their jaws, and both were roughly the same height.

"Yeah well, I always wondered how Asari, Humans and Quarians are so similar…" Ariel Williams had joined the conversation at their table. "You notice your sons might both be xenophiles from how a certain Quarian Machinist's got James' attention?" Tali had, after enough to drink (though of the dextro-amino-compatible variety and foods), dragged James out onto the dance floor, though like his twin he danced with all the grace of an epileptic chicken.

Hannah Shepard waved it off "Meh, who cares, if it's meant to be it's meant to be."

"My thoughts exactly…" Ariel glanced over at where Ashley and Kaidan were and did a double-take after a brief silence "Hey! You! Yes, YOU, ALENKO! NO GROPING MY DAUGHTER IN MY LINE OF SIGHT, ALRIGHT?"

"Oh come on, Mom, I've gone a lot further than that with him in public areas on the Normandy."

Tali had apparently caught that "Please tell me you didn't go near the engine core…" She had stopped dancing and looked at them pleadingly, as was obvious from her body language.

Ashley bit her lip, then yelled back, still straddling Kaidan's lap "Uh, no, but we did do it on the mess table a couple times…"

Joker, from their general area, threw up his arms in exasperation "That's it! I knew trying to hobble to the mess was an exercise in futility for a cripple like me, no more! I don't need to eat my food off a table like that."

Ariel, when Hannah and Benezia turned back to look, had faceplanted on the table and was groaning in irritation "I don't need to envision my daughter getting laid… I really did not need that imagery…" She muttered "I feel sorry for my husband…"

"Why would that be?" Benezia asked, tilting her head, suddenly, for no apparent reason other than having drunk some alcohol, noting that it was very nice to have lost the wrinkles she'd gotten from the indoctrination.

"Because I'm going to be turned off for a month, that's why."

Benezia snorted "Heh, I'd feel sorry for your husband too." The 1500-year-old Matriarch took some more of her drink "Hmm, it seems like my daughter is worse at holding her drink than I'd have expected considering her dame deals with alcohols and concoctions on a regular basis."

Liar was now passed out, having taken a little too much, and Shepard was sitting next to the couch he'd laid her on, watching her and waiting for her to wake up "My boy needs to know when to make a move on a woman." Hannah groaned "He should have proposed they go back to their quarters when she was only a little tipsy."

"I agree, it is truly too bad." Benezia shook her head, drinking some more, seeing Ariel's stare, she shrugged "I already interrogated him, they've gone all the way quite a few times already, so it's not like she'll be mad at him for it."

"Huh, you sure? Well I think the way John's acting right now is sweet, Liara's going to enjoy the warm, fuzzy and loved feeling more than sex she can't even remember clearly." Ariel said.

Hannah rolled her eyes "We're talking about from John's perspective. Obviously if we're talking about it from the perspective of their relationship, John's doing the right thing."

"Oh, right, I knew that." Ariel slurred, she'd had a bit too much to drink.

The end result of the night wasn't nearly as horrific as it could have been. No one ended up waking up in abject horror next to someone they would have minded sleeping with, and no one got too far out of it. But they all (those who didn't already know) learned one thing: When the top-level people of the Coalition of Species let their hair down, things were usually a lot more hair-raising than if it was, say, the Asari Republics.

* * *

WARNING: PARTLY FLUFFY SEXUAL/WIKIPEDIA JOKE AHEAD, SKIP IF YOU DO NOT LIKE (however John Shepard's performance and size issues will be explained, so it might be worth reading.) NO LEMON.

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, September 9, 3868_

"You know, John, you should ask for stuff from Liara sometimes." Kaidan started into the silence around the two men's table. James would have been in attendance had he not requested a transfer after Tali left the ship and he found his presence suddenly extraneous. Of course, Tali, like the others who left, were authorized to their armour choices and weapons for the rest of their lives.

Wrex had also left, but for Tuchanka, to reunite the Krogan clans so that they could unanimously request a terraforming project to be carried out by the Coalition of Species to fix the planet up. Garrus had left after the news that the Coalition Marines were pulling out of the Citadel, since C-Sec was still short on personnel. The Coalition Marines had enforced the law, the Citadel laws, strictly throughout the Citadel. Any who resisted in the darker districts were arrested and more often than not after their files were dug up executed. The crime rate had dropped to an all-time low as everything from muggers to black market organ dealings were brutally suppressed (sometimes literally via tackling to the ground) by Coalition Marines arriving at the scene of the crime within seconds using Quantum Propulsion Packs.

Raynor's Raiders had also stuck around, and the mysterious bulky armoured warriors had gained a fearsome reputation for providing extreme heavy weapons support when the better-armed gangs tried to hang onto their turf. The Citadel had literally been nearly cleansed of crime in the weeks after the battle, but now the Council Races were beginning to suspect the Marines of planning an invasion.

"Why? I have her, that's all I need from her."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow "You're getting possessive over her, that's a good sign, John, your relationship will be more stable if both ends are somewhat possessive of the other, since if you're not possessive it makes them feel unloved, but if you're overly possessive they think you're overbearing."

"…Since when have you been a relationship counsellor?"

An eye-roll from Kaidan was the response "Since I decided to talk to you just now."

"What do you think I should ask for from her?"

Kaidan thought for a moment "Well… do you give her oral a lot?"

John fidgeted a little, biting his lip before he answered "Uh, yeah, she loves it, especially if it's what she wakes up to."

"Does she return the favour?"

"Uh, I don't think she knows how…"

"Well there you have it, ask her for a BJ!"

"I'm not so sure about that, Kaidan. I mean, I don't want her to feel pressured or anything…"

Kaidan slammed his fist down on the table "John Shepard, you need to stop trying to be the perfect boyfriend and think for your own pleasure sometimes."

John put down his fist too "If Liara likes me being the perfect boyfriend, the perfect boyfriend I will remain."

They glared at each other in silence for a moment before Kaidan burst out laughing "You, my friend, are whipped."

"Don't tell me you're not whipped over Ash." The silence was all the answer John needed.

* * *

Liara was feeling warm and fuzzy inside from John's words, but she was also puzzled, what in the universe was a BJ? She decided it would be a good idea to go around asking various crew members… "Joker, what's a Bee-Jay?"

Joker looked at the attractive Asari as if she'd grown a second head, mouth gaping in sheer horror. "You don't know what a blowjob is? Has Shepard been teaching you nothing? Where did you hear of the term anyways?"

"I overheard John and Kaidan talking about John needing to ask for stuff from me. Kaidan suggested John ask me for oral sex, and then mentioned a BJ, whatever that is…"

"T'Soni, it is one of the greatest blessings ever endowed upon males of any race. If you want more description, go ask Chakwas." Joker said, pulling his legs up onto his seat and wrapping his arms around them, rocking back and forth, staring off into space in abject horror "He hasn't asked her for a blowjob yet… we need to disown Shepard from man-kind…"

Liara rolled her eyes, that didn't go so well… She headed for the med bay next "Chakwas, what's a BJ, or as Joker calls it a blowjob?"

The medical files Chakwas was working on suddenly acquired a huge coffee stain as the doctor did a spit-take. "Shepard hasn't asked you for one yet?" Her eyes bulged as she choked a little, coughing violently before she got out the next words "It's a bit of an awkward topic… I think you should check it out on Wikipedia." Shockingly, said website was still alive and healthy over 1800 years after its founding. "If there's really anything you don't understand, come back and ask me."

"Alright, I guess." Liara was wondering about the level of secrecy surrounding this topic.

* * *

_I am so bored if I'm modifying Wikipedia like this…_ Ashley Williams thought to herself as she typed out her text in the edit box of the site. Satisfied with her prank, she clicked "Save".

One second after the website was updated, one Liara T'Soni downloaded the webpage, keeping it on her browser window. Four seconds after that, a moderator deleted the changes.

* * *

Liara frowned to herself "Wouldn't that be rather painful?" The site had advised biting down gently while pulling your head back suddenly, aka raking the guy's dick hard with your teeth. "Oh, it says here that it's actually quite pleasurable…" Most of the crew when asked had claimed Wikipedia was usually reliable and inconsistencies were easily detectable and often absurd… but when she'd gently raked him with her nails before he had found it agreeable judging from his groan back then… Liara T'Soni came to the conclusion that she would follow the website's instructions and closed the browser window, opting to wait in John's room for him. It was nearing bedtime anyways.

The door opened, and John Shepard came in, taking off his armour to reveal his usual indoors clothing. Liara turned to regard him with a sultry smile "Hello, John, I want to try something new with you… let's wash you off first…" John Shepard wasn't about to complain as she led him to the shower.

* * *

The scream that punched straight through the weak sound-dampening fields of Shepard's quarters actually caused Liara's biotics to subconsciously flare and dampen the sound reaching her ears. The pain had been enough to break the Union before Liara even felt it in its entirety. Shepard had curled up on himself before going limp, face frozen in an expression of horror and a silent scream. "Shepard, Shepard!" She panicked, grabbing her gauntlet from where she'd discarded it earlier and scanning him, sighing in relief when she discovered he was still alive, merely passed out from pain, she called Chakwas as she sat down by his bedside, tears making their way down her face "Curse you, Wikipedia."

* * *

It took a while for Shepard to wake up in the med bay, the first thing he noted being Liara's purple lips hovering above his face after kissing him tenderly on the forehead. He screamed and squeezed his eyes shut out of instinctive fear before he remembered and forced his eyes to open, looking up at his girlfriend's tear-stained face.

"Shepard, you're awake! I… I'm so sorry for trusting Wikipedia!"

"Wikipedia? Everyone and anyone can edit that… a moderator probably deleted the changes you read like five seconds later but it's not your fault, Azure." She'd started to enjoy the nickname when they were in private; it was a gesture of intimacy after all.

"Still, I should have known better… I shouldn't have trusted that damned website!" Liara sobbed into John's shoulder as he patted her on the head, too high on painkillers to mind the pain that came with moving.

* * *

"KAIDAN ALENKO!" Shepard roared as he hobbled into the mess hall, Liara tagging along behind him, still looking and feeling guilty.

"What…" Kaidan managed to get out just before John slugged him with a right hook across the jaw just before Ashley parried John's next strike for him "What's up with you man?"

"You were the one that suggested a BJ, and after Liara overheard, she went on fucking WIKIPEDIA!"

Ashley was the first one to piece the pieces together, turning deathly pale "Liara, did you read the article on blowjobs last night?" The Asari nodded mutely, still too upset to talk near Kaidan without risking throwing him. "Oh shit I'm so sorry John!"

John Shepard was bewildered, and so was Kaidan Alenko by this point "What are you talking about?"

"I edited the site… as a joke. I had no idea Liara was going to go there and learn about it…" Ashley withered under the glares of all three people. "I was bored… I'm sorry." She squeaked out. "I'm sorry I hurt you that way twice, John." She started to cry; with the result that Kaidan wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair comfortingly.

John's voice was cold with fury when he spoke next "Now that you have a good idea of what my best friend thinks is proper blowjob technique, Kaidan, I hope you're still willing to let her mouth near your dick, I'll be waiting for the scream."

Kaidan shook his head rather vigorously "Hell no Shepard… wait, what do you mean twice, Ash?"

Ashley confessed "There was one time when we were still young, only ten or twelve or so, when John and I were practicing soccer together, alone. John slide-tackled the ball out from under me just as I was about to kick it… he actually shattered some of the lights in the gymnasium with his scream when I kicked him right in the balls." Kaidan winced and Shepard shivered at the memory "I think that's why he didn't develop as much as James did."

"Yeah, before you ask, Kaidan, James is around 20 cm, and me? I'm around 13, because your girlfriend did some permanent damage. Try to make sure she doesn't do any permanent damage to your hardware, good luck, Alenko." He said icily as he turned and left the mess hall. Liara followed him silently, staring daggers at Ashley for inflicting permanent damage to her lover, Ash cringed further into Kaidan's arms.

END OF WIKIPEDIA HUMOUR

* * *

_Low orbit over Alchera, October 18, 3868_

The Normandy was currently hanging over Alchera, an unforgiving ice-world, with its stealth and cloaking fully engaged for protection, in addition to structural fields and shields. It was adding the over-shield systems that had just been developed for Coalition starships while running more or less silent… more, since Shepard wasn't ripping on Ashley any more.

Liara T'Soni was brushing her teeth after her and Shepard's morning quickie when the ship shook. "Shields are down, SHIELDS DOWN!" Joker shouted over the PA as she spat the mint-tasting foam out and rinsed out her mouth, pulling her Aeon Medium Armour's helmet on as she'd already had the rest of the armour on.

"Liara, get to the Restorer and be ready to abandon ship." Shepard's voice sounded in her suit comm. as the suit sealed while she walked out of their shared rooms, noting the rumpled bed and the armour locker now reading empty.

"Shepard, I'm not leaving without you." She caught up to him at the stairs.

Shepard grabbed her by the shoulder pauldrons and stared her in the optics with his own red ones. "Liara, please, I just need to get Joker, make sure everyone else has gotten to the cargo bay, please, do this for me."

She hesitated only a moment before deciding to obey her lover "Alright…" She nodded and headed down the stairs toward the cargo bay where everyone else was boarding the Restorer. On larger Coalition warships, the lifeboats would be Janus-class Fighter-Bombers in special compartments in the hull, since Geminis were simply too large for the job, but here they used the ship's shuttle, even if it was a T3 AA Gunship.

* * *

The oddly organic-looking ship that resembled nothing so much as a giant termite nest, six times the Normandy's length, had exited FTL behind the Normandy and immediately blasted it with a shot from its particle beam accelerator, flat lining the Normandy's shields and dealing significant damage to the structural fields in only one shot as the smaller ship's weapons swung about to engage, the Dual Proton Cannons blasting away as soon as they locked on and the Quantum Cannons did the same, turning down and back as the Normandy dove and rolled to angle its belly toward the Collector ship.

The giant termite hive, more of a transport than a warship anyways, wasn't expecting this kind of resistance, so it barrelled by the smaller ship, the Proton Cannons no longer able to pitch down far enough to keep the craft in its sights and being forced to begin swinging around before Joker turned the Normandy for another half-loop, bringing it in behind the Collector ship, pounding into the larger ship with all the weaponry it had while the other ship fired with secondary pulse weapons that the Normandy shook off, and that's in the literal sense, as the ship literally shook itself from side to side and up and down to avoid the weapons fire as best it could while its shields were rebooting slowly.

Kilotons upon kilotons TNT yield in the form of Proton Cannon shells, Quantum Cannon bolts, Zealot Space Interception Missiles and even Zapper Tactical Missile Defence lasers blasted into the ass end of the enemy until the Cruiser pulled an unexpected move. It braked, ramming the corvette's nose against its butt and depleting the regenerating shields of the smaller ship, stunning it momentarily as the cruiser twisted about and took another shot at the corvette with its main weapon.

* * *

Shepard had reached the cockpit of the ship "Joker, haul your ass to the bridge ejection pod right now!"

"I can still save her, Shepard!" Joker shouted as he stayed on the enemy ship's tail, it was nearer dreadnought than cruiser size, but he felt the Normandy had a good chance of driving it off successfully.

"Joker, listen to me, you can do that just as well by strategic interface…"

"The problem with that lies in getting my crippled ass from here, Point A, to there, Point B!" Joker gestured vaguely as he stayed doggedly on the larger ship's tail. Shepard rolled his eyes and picked his pilot up, letting the man continue the flying via strategic interface as he secured him inside the escape pod just as the ship lurched abruptly.

"Ah shit they BRAKED on us!" Joker shouted just before the deck began to buck under their feet. "Shepard, get your ass in here!" a bulkhead exploded, blocking the way, but still leaving enough space for one of Shepard's arms to reach through and slap the pod's ejection button. "NO!" Joker shouted just before he realized that with Quantum Propulsion Pack and Coalition Armour, Shepard was perfectly capable of zero-gee combat and survival… he kept thinking that until he saw the particle beam drilling through the Normandy's armour (the shaking from earlier) and blowing through the Bridge, where Shepard had been a moment ago. The status indicators on Shepard flashed "No Signal" as Joker screamed and pounded on the door of the pod, breaking his arms in the process but not caring.

* * *

Shepard had twisted as far out of the way of the particle beam s he could when his over-shields, shields and structural fields had began popping, and he screamed as even through the thermal barriers and radiators of his armour he could feel the intense energy of the beam. His entire back felt as if it was melting, dissolving into a sort of goo… The pain was unbearable, though the armour was still sealed and life support was doing its best to compensate. He was blasted out of the bridge by the beam's splash damage once it had fragmented that part of the rapidly failing Corvette, and began drifting out in space, disoriented from the damage which was being rapidly repaired by his suit's medi-gel injectors, until they stopped due to lack of medi-gel. His reactor cores were offline and so was the onboard micro-nanolathe, but he still had enough energy storage to perhaps get to the Restorer… the enemy ship had jumped out, having blasted the Normandy one last time, silencing the remaining guns by vaporizing the reactors, so he had a chance…

* * *

Liara was fidgeting nervously as she watched the holographic display of the Normandy, focused on the bridge, and praying fervently that her Shepard would be okay. She gasped when for a moment the status readout on Shepard's suit read "NO SIGNAL" before it resumed. The suit was crippled but it still had enough juice to reach the Restorer and land in the airlock, easily. She watched with relief as Shepard set a course for the Restorer, hanging in a lower orbit than the Normandy's wreckage. John was fine, and judging from the noise from Joker's ejection pod, he was fine too. She zoomed in the holo-cam on his approach vector, and watched as he flew toward her in the vacuum of space with an exhaust trail… AN EXHAUST TRAIL? "Guys, we need to go get Shepard, RIGHT THE FUCK NOW! HE'S LEAKING AIR AND HIS SUIT POWER CORE'S DOWN!" She shouted.

* * *

John Shepard was barely staying conscious as his vision tunnelled and he tried to direct himself toward the general direction of the Restorer, feeling the air venting from the breach in his neck seal and his body beginning to freeze solid from the unforgiving cold of vacuum. Breathing was growing more and more difficult, and since the stasis fields on the suit no longer worked (the emitters having been destroyed, it was a testament to the sheer toughness of Coalition Marine Armour) he would be doomed if he lost consciousness. Finally, over two kilometres from the Restorer, he knew he wouldn't make it as his body stopped responding, the cold having frozen his spine and clouding his vision as his eyeballs froze, tearing and splintering from the cold that sucked all the remaining air from his lungs. His last thought before darkness took him was _I'm sorry, Liara, I hope you can find happiness elsewhere someday, I love you._

* * *

_I'm sorry, Liara, I hope you can find happiness elsewhere someday, I love you._ She beat her fists furiously against the glass of the forward cockpit viewport as her Shepard's vitals flat-lined and his suit computers declared him dead. She screamed abuse at the empty space outside the ship and only wished that her biotics could have worked through the Psychic-proof shielding to at least put Shepard in a Stasis field. Tears poured down from her eyes as she watched Shepard's armour bounce off the now-unmoving Restorer's top hull toward the planet and fall into its gravity field.

Liara screamed until she no longer had the air in her lungs to do so, and then sobbed her heart out as Ashley wrapped her in a hug, watching her childhood friend's body burn up in the atmosphere of the planet below.

* * *

_Citadel, November 11, 3868_

Liara sat stoically through the speeches by the Citadel Council and the leaders of the Coalition, and of course Garrus, since Tali and Wrex could only send their condolences. Hannah Shepard and James Shepard spoke too, along with herself. She had no idea exactly what she'd said, but it had garnered hollow, polite applause that was completely meaningless to her. Not being an idiot, James Shepard remarked to his mother "I'm worried about Liara, ever since she lost John it's been like she's lost the will to live or something equally cheesy…"

"For as long as there is war there will be broken-hearted sentients left in its wake." Hannah said slowly "Now we just have to figure out exactly who attacked the Normandy and what sort of weapon they used."

"I can answer the second question." Doctor Brackman's hologram walked up. "It was a sort of beta particle directed radiation weapon, in other words, a helium ion accelerator, a bit better than one of our Novax satellite plasma accelerators in power."

James snorted acknowledgement "Huh, and who do we know in the galaxy with that sort of weapon besides us?"

"We don't know anyone with that sort of tech besides the Reapers, that's the problem." Brackman shrugged.

Hannah Shepard stared "Really? Well, this will be a long hunt then…" She said blankly, obviously suppressing her fury at whomever it was that killed her son. "Could it be the Colonials?"

Brackman shook his head "Impossible, they have zero directed-energy weapons, and right now their archaic ships are STILL fleeing toward their forward base with their tails between their legs. And before you ask, the Cylons are still considering their choices."

"Damn, I was hoping to get that out of the way before my mood gets too bad to resist simply hunting down these Colonials and razing their puny twelve colonies…"

* * *

A/N: We've caught up in time to where SupCom: the Thirteenth stopped, NOW I shall _consider_ posting more for that and continuing this at the same time, eventually pitching in WorldWar: Supreme Balance when the timeline gets there.


	5. The Redeemer Has Risen

A/N: Redemption proper begins…

* * *

Chapter 5: The Redeemer Has Risen

_Near Omega, November 18, 3868_

"We're here; a long way to bring one person… though she sure paid well enough, think there's more where that came from?" The pilot asked his brother.

The second Turian was polishing his pistol "I'm sure of it, but I'm not so sure about shaking her down… I caught an extranet report on her, she's part of Commander Shepard's team."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Turian." Their Batarian employer walked up "They haven't seen Shepard in a month. Not since the Normandy got taken out. If two-eyes back there wants help from a Spectre, she'd better pick one that's still alive!" He unpacked his shotgun

The freighter's cockpit door slid open, and the aforementioned Asari walked in with soft footsteps. Liara T'Soni had fallen far since the death of her commander and lover, John Shepard, a month ago. She'd spent a number of the days before the funeral with her mother, who did her best to comfort her little girl, but it wasn't enough to sooth Liara's pain. Now that there were rumours of Shepard's body being recovered, she was determined to find out exactly what had happened to her Shepard. She wasn't, for once, wearing her shining white and green Aeon Medium armour, but she maintained a constant, invisible biotic barrier around herself. "I'll thank you not to talk about my friends that way, captain, dead or alive." She growled dangerously.

"You're awake, so did our little Asari cargo enjoy her flight? We tried not to make it too bumpy for you…" The Batarian grinned maliciously

"I don't know, maybe she likes it rough?" The Turian with the pistols said.

Liara was quickly getting irritated. She'd been easily annoyed ever since Shepard died for some reason… "Are we ready to dock at Omega or not?"

"Soon, soon, I wanted to have a talk with you first about certain… docking fees." The Batarian growled "This is an expensive ship I run here, you wouldn't believe my overhead. I'm reduced to hiring people like the brothers here… and I can't give them many perks."

Her biotics flared without being visible, a perk of her new power gain since her relationship with Shepard started "You've been paid, Batarian, now get back and…"

"Hey, hey, it's alright, we're nice people, everything's negotiable." The Turians said. "If you can't pay, maybe we can think of something…else."

Liara grinned ruefully, these buffoons didn't know that no one laid their hands on her like that or made suggestions like that to her except for her Shepard, well, she'd teach them a lesson. "I SAID GET BACK!" with but a thought the Batarian had been rammed through a flimsy control panel that she'd punctured first with her mind, his body jerking about uncontrollably as it was fried by the electricity flowing through him until the panel finally shorted out and the smoking corpse fell to the ground. By that time, both Turians had already been put in stasis (after being thrown around the cockpit) and Liara, with all her belongings, was at the helm, patching into the ship's systems through her armour. It provided her with the instructions to pilot the craft, but she still remembered her training from decades ago.

"Attention, Batarian freighter, this is Omega Control, do you wish to dock or not?" The traffic controller stated as she approached. She suddenly thought it would have been nice to have a Coalition-issue warship, since she could probably simply blast through those defences at close range. Guns built to stand off dreadnoughts were long-ranged and ineffective at short range and especially at traversing.

"This is Liara T'Soni, Omega Control. Apologies for the delay, I was negotiating my fare, stand by for docking."

"Copy, T'Soni, This trip business or personal?"

"Both, I have someone to meet." She docked the ship herself once they cleared her and left the two Turians and dead Batarian there as she left the ship, wearing most of her armour again.

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, November 18, 3868_

Liara was talking with an Elcor about Shepard, an exercise in futility if ever she saw one. She was told "No, I have not seen anyone like that here, nor have I been looking. What do you think I am, the bar's Information Minister?" It made her facepalm and sigh in irritation.

"I didn't mean to offend, I just thought…"

"Miffed: You thought that because I was an elcor, I wouldn't be watching the gyrating flesh-things all day. Elcor are good dancers… Pitifully: No one here gives us the chance." The giant creature said in the typical elcor monotone.

The newscast interrupted them "And rebuilding efforts continue at the Citadel, following the departure of all remaining Coalition of Species soldiers other than the Ward Armouries." The soldiers, be they Raider or Coalition Marine, had been keeping crime under control while C-Sec got back on its feet. "For the total reconstruction, the Citadel Council expends to spend…"

"Mournful sigh: More than they'd ever spend here. If it weren't for this place, living on Omega would be downright depressing."

"You know, it's irritating that the Citadel is supposedly still under reconstruction… considering…" She trailed off.

"Agreement: The Coalition of Species had done much to assist the Citadel's reconstruction. Anger: Yet they still made the Coalition Marines leave and stop enforcing the Citadel Laws. Resignation: They have no will to repair their own mess."

"Heh, you got that right…" Liara had sighted her contact, a Drell wearing a hooded cloak just like that which many on Omega wore, except instead of a yellow icon on Liara's HUD he was a green one, a friendly neutral.

"You have to love the elcor… they have all the expressiveness of your typical tree. If they didn't explain the nuance of what they were saying, it'd be like talking to one!"

"Ah, you, you're the one I'm supposed to meet, tell me…"

"No, not here, outside" The Drell revealed his face.

"Alright, lead the way." Liara got up and followed him outside, still not donning her helmet which she had hidden in her Quantum Storage Space on her back. Her armour wasn't that distinctive compared to other armours, especially with the cloak drawn over it, but the helmet and its optics… that would made her stand out like a sore thumb. "What now?" her biotics were active, hidden under the armour, ready if her contact tried anything.

"It's not really safe walking around asking questions on Omega… even if you're from around here. The information you're looking for wasn't easy to find, not even for me." The Drell shook his head sadly.

"Where are you taking me? What do you know about…?" Her optics flared brighter in surprise as she noted the orange contacts appearing, neutral-hostiles, meaning non-allied neutrals with weapons charged. "We're being followed." She took hold of her PSMG from her right leg holster and readied her LSMG from her left leg holster just before the Drell pulled her into an alcove.

"Nice going, how'd you notice that? Anyways, my name's Feron, and you're right, I know where Commander Shepard is, but you won't like what I have to tell you."

Liara snorted "I know he's dead…" she just wanted closure, to see Shepard one last time.

"Yes, or very close to it, very hard to say… the body's been recovered, in some kind of stasis pod, if not dead, then certainly not alive, I know you came a long way… sorry to be the bearer of bad news…"

She knew that, but "I need… I need to see, Feron, for myself."

"Liara, you're not the only one interested in finding Shepard, I suggest you let the dead sleep."

"I guess my words didn't translate clearly into whatever language you think in, I said: I need to see Shepard."

Feron shrugged. "It's your money, your life." They left the alcove "This isn't like the Citadel, with transit everywhere. We're going to go a long way on foot…"

"I don't mind, just as long as we find…" The hostile contacts began closing in, and Liara opened fire indiscriminately at the incoming orange contacts, which were dropping from the ceiling and wall alcoves toward them.

"BLUE SUNS!" Feron shouted in alarm as he drew his pistol and began exchanging fire with the shielded mercs, Liara's over-shield covering him from incoming fire without even rippling from the light, weak munitions hitting it.

Some mercs tried to sneak up on Liara's back, and her response was a biotically enhanced arm-slash that left said mercs almost snapped in half on the ground, even through armour. Her biotics flared again just before a Krogan's vice thundered "Hold it, Asari! You as much as flinch, and you'll have more gouges in your pretty skull than you were born with." The guy was holding a gun at her head from inside the over-shield, but not inside her personal shields… "You came all the way to Omega looking for someone who's dead… The Shadow Broker wants to know why."

"He's a spoilt brat if he hasn't realized that he doesn't always get what he wants." Liara sneered, her eyes narrowing. "Move or die."

"How about… no" the Krogan's head exploded from a sniper-type round just as he pulled the trigger, the pistol slug being stopped short by Liara's shield dome over he head before it even reached her biotic barrier.

Liara recognized the transponder, or her suit did, as Garrus, meaning that had been a GLMG round. "Thanks, Garrus." She sent over comms before she grinned "I told you so." She said to the mercs before opening up on the remaining mercenaries with her dual SMGs while putting all of them in stasis at once with a mere thought. By the time she dragged a still slack-jawed Feron along behind her through the group, her stasis field, the non-invincible variety, had still not worn off, though the mercs sported lots of extra holes. She didn't quite understand why she'd killed them all in cold blood, but she guessed it was her mission with Shepard teaching her to neutralize hostiles, PERMANENTLY.

"Liara T'Soni, we hear you've been looking for Shepard?" a voice said, the HUD designated the sound as coming from a green contact on Liara's HUD, it was a woman, dressed in what appeared to be popularly termed a "latex cat-suit". She was accompanied by a man dressed in Seraphim Medium Armour.

Liara frowned "You are?" She made sure she was ready to take the woman on if need be, though the man could prove difficult for her to handle.

"I am Miranda Lawson, agent of Doctor Brackman and the Cybran Nation, we too are looking for Shepard."

"Shepard is dead." Liara said, cutting the woman off.

"That's what they say, but Shepard's beaten the odds before." Miranda vaguely wondered if she was referring to Hannah Shepard's victory at Black Sun twenty-four years ago or John Shepard. "Work with us, and we might be able to bring Shepard back."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just come with me." Miranda turned and began to walk off, the Coalition Marine following without a sound. "You can even bring the Drell… we're not being choosy today."

_

* * *

_

Elsewhere on Omega, November 18, 3868

"I don't think you should take the offer, Liara. The Cybrans are known to use not-quite-ethical methods and for being defensive of their kind…"

"If you mean the original Symbionts, yes, there were unethical practices, but what you don't know is that John Shepard himself was a Cybran."

"WHAT?" Feron gaped at Liara "you cannot be serious!"

"The Council didn't want anyone in their space to know the first human Spectre was Cybran." Miranda stated.

"She's telling the truth, well, as long as we're both trying to save Shepard, we'll be fine." Liara waved Feron's concerns off. "Let's go meet the Doc… oh, for cheesiness's sake, take me to your leader."

Miranda sighed as she led Liara and Feron to her ship, her boy toy Jacob trailing behind the two, it was going to be a long day at this rate. She momentarily wondered whether or not Shepard's whole old crew had this sort of "cheesiness syndrome", then shivered and tried to shake off the thought.

* * *

Doctor Brackman nodded respectfully as Liara entered the conference room "good day, Miss T'Soni, I have received new and disturbing reports that the Collectors want John Shepard's remains." He said in his usual slow, sagely manner. "It would appear they have hired that which is known as the Shadow Broker to give it to them. Though we have kept our borders utterly sealed to the Shadow Broker's agents so far, and have no desire to change that anytime soon, I must ask you to find out why the collectors desire Shepard's corpse, and get it before they do… He is a symbol of humanity, what we are capable of, how friendly we can be, and he is also a symbol that Cybrans are not as scary as most of the galaxy thinks…" the Doctor trailed off.

"The COLLECTORS?" Liara's jaw nearly hit the ground "But they're a bunch of slavers, what could they want with a dead body?"

"That's what I want you to find out, they're little more than cosmic vagabonds, turning up on Omega from time to time, making off with beings of no real use, often with trivial distinctions… Volus middle siblings, Dyslexic Krogan, Elcor who sing well… odd, but not overly alarming, and they haven't managed to touch even a single Coalition citizen yet. Oh yes." Brackman's orange hologram nodded "I would want my child's remains back in any event, but it is imperative that the Collectors NOT get him." If Liara hadn't known better she would have asked why Brackman called Shepard his child. "Whatever their reasons are, they can't be good, which is why we need YOU!" Brackman pointed before suddenly realizing he resembled a certain Uncle Sam from a recruiting poster in the US Civil War.

"Hmm, I wonder why you would choose me, Doctor. It does seem pointless to send me as opposed to, say, James Shepard, who you can have absolute faith in."

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats someone with a personal motive driving them, my child, and your motive is far stronger than James Shepard's could be."

Liara snorted derisively "Heh, well, Shepard can count on me, anyways."

* * *

_Unknown Location, November 18, 3868_

"This delay is unacceptable, Shadow Broker!" The Collector stated monotonously "We expected shipment of the body far earlier, why has it not been delivered yet?"

"Yet you will accept it, unless you Collectors know of another source that has Shepard's body. Shepard will be brought to a place of my own choosing. The transaction will take place there and nowhere else. Other players have entered the game, I must protect my sources and methods…"

"Quickly, then, succeed."

"I always do." The voice said before the Collector's eyes went grey. "I always do."

* * *

_Omega, November 18, 3868_

_Sorrow could wait for now… Finding Shepard couldn't._ Liara snapped out of the memory as Miranda spoke to her "Liara, are you listening? I was saying if you wanted to find Shepard, the ones who attacked you earlier are the key: Blue Suns Mercenaries."

She got up, stretched, and scratched her head crest's pliant ending tail-thingies "Didn't I kill them all?"

Miranda snorted "Oh that Krogan wasn't the brains of the operation, even when his brains were still in his head. From what you told us, their big idiot brigade was just trying to keep you from finding Shepard, which means that the Drell might actually be right. The body's here on Omega, and the Blue Suns have it." She leaned on the hover car's open door "If the body had left Omega, I would know. They haven't made the final handoff to the Shadow Broker's agent, which means we've still got a chance." She sent Liara's armour the necessary coordinates for the drop-off. "Find the body and bring it here, we'll pay your expenses."

"I'm not familiar with Omega… I'm not even sure where to start looking."

"Like Doc Brackman probably told you at one point or another, ask the Drell. Put your bumpy heads together, I'm sure you'll come up with something." Miranda waved before the hover car lifted off and flew away.

"She's a bigger fool than I thought if she thinks I'd help them. Besides, you saw what happened the last time I tried to lead you anywhere, what do they think I can give you?"

Liara sneered "Quite a lot, I should think, you're an agent of the Shadow Broker, and they know it."

"What?" Feron managed to get out before Liara patted him gently with a biotically enhanced hand on the cheek, careful not to break too much, with the result of him literally pin-wheeling in the air and hitting the ground face-down in a heap from the sheer force of Liara's over-powered biotics. The crowd in the background went about their business as if nothing had happened. "You could have killed me!"

Liara dragged him up with her strength plus armour power, her biotics flaring high "And those mercs could as far as you know have killed me, Feron, you were the only person who knew I was coming to search for Shepard, but those mercs found me anyway! So either they knew exactly what you were up to, or you sold me out."

Feron stuttered as Liara's biotics kept glowing fiercely as she held him up effortlessly with one hand "Yeah, I did work for the Shadow Broker in the past, but that was only odd jobs, and I was only told to lead friends of Shepard astray… I had no idea the Blue Suns would be attacking us…"

"Sure, mister, but I'll be keeping an eye on you, try leading me astray, and we'll see how long you last. Remember, a thought from me can crush your skull." Feron gulped nervously "Oh, and I'm still paying you for this, so any second thoughts, well…" She dropped him onto the ground.

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, November 18, 3868_

"This… This is where we started!" Liara said indignantly.

"Weren't you listening? I was supposed to lead you away, remember?"

"Shepard is HERE?" Liara wondered aloud.

"Not unless corpses can dance, no, we're here for Aria."

Liara looked about the nightclub "This doesn't look like the kind of place for human opera."

Feron shook his head "Aria T'Loak is one of your kind, an Asari. If anything's going down on this station, she knows about it."

Liara snorted and turned to glance at Feron out of the corner of her eye (she still had the helmet stowed in her storage space) "Queen of Omega, huh? Some palace."

"Oh, I don't know, Princess…" a Batarian said just before he grabbed Liara's arm "I can find a throne for you… Move it, Volus, we're gonna need us some room."

The Volus waddled up to Feron "Is the girl for sale, trader? The market's been overflowing with Asari since the attack on the Citadel, but my associate and I can always find a place for excess inventory…" He never noticed the spear of pure biotic power heading for him until it had slashed him and his environment suit cleanly in half. The Batarian had fared no better, his head having been imploded by a mere thought on the part of the Asari.

Liara snorted, having squashed the two like bugs "I think I understand why they called this place Afterlife, can we get on with this, Feron?"

"Uh, right, if the floor show's done, Anto, we're here to see Aria." Feron walked up to the hulking Batarian guard.

The man growled down at Feron "She's busy, too busy to deal with a snitch-for-hire like you."

"Uh-huh, I guess I'll have to find another way to let her know about the business you and I usually do… but then, she probably won't mind knowing someone on her payroll's been selling information on who she sees and when. Would she?"

* * *

_Upstairs, Afterlife, Omega, November 18, 3868_

"Your friend is better-looking than your usual company, Feron… which means she can't be your friend. I like how she dealt with the gentlemen downstairs, but you really must leave poor Anto alone… so many years and he still hasn't learned that NOTHING is secret from me… certainly not in my own establishment. He's lucky I'm fond of him, it's a good survival trait." She said quietly, as if only to Liara, then raised her voice somewhat "It isn't often that the Shadow Broker sends his minions to me for help, something big and juicy, I'm betting. Anto, some privacy, please."

"Just keep quiet, I'll deal with this…" Feron whispered to Liara before speaking "Just checking up on some merchandise, Aria, the body of Commander Shepard. I know the Blue Suns are set to deliver it to the Shadow Broker, I need to know where."

"You don't? I knew the Broker likes secrecy, but for his own man not to know what he's up to…" Aria stepped closer to Liara and put one finger under the other Asari's chin "And YOU, I know you. You're one of Shepard's crew, were you able to speak when Shepard was alive?"

Liara's new, shortened temper was starting to smoulder again as the purple Asari spoke more "The Shadow Broker is powerful, but Omega is mine. I know everything that happens here. I do know about the transfer, but I need something in return, Feron. Why is the Broker so interested in Shepard?"

"I… I don't know, that's what we're trying to find out."

"Bullshit! Of course you know, and if you want Shepard, you'll tell me."

"Because the Shadow Broker is working with the COLLECTORS! They're the ones that want Shepard's body."

"The COLLECTORS?" Aria was hard to surprise, but right now she was gaping wide enough to drive a dreadnought through "Nobody said anything about the Collectors!"

"I thought you knew everything that happened on…" Liara started.

"Out of here, both of you, Anto, get in here and get them out, NOW!"

"Wait, I told you what you wanted to know. Where are they taking Shepard?" Liara demanded.

Aria hesitated for a moment "The lower levels of Omega, the old mining processing plant. The Blue Suns were taking your friend there."

* * *

Feron and Liara had effectively flown up the ass end of Omega to reach the mining processing plant that had made the station that ate the asteroid possible. Heavy weapons and scrapped aircraft littered the area, reminding Liara of the description she'd heard from Seth-Thauum of Dead Man's Port in the Koprulu Sector. The fact that there was a large number of Blue Suns Mercenaries, assorted Turians, Krogan and Batarians, since humans weren't in the merc business much, around didn't help that impression.

"That's them, all right." Feron grinned "Looks like we even got here first, smooth and easy. Did I tell you Aria knows her station?"

Liara agreed, looking over the area with gun cam "She seems to know all the popular places, anyway…"

"Look there!" One of the mercs yelled as a ship docked, coming in and landing.

A very large Salarian walked down from the craft's ramp holding a Grenade Launcher "Damn, did I say easy?" Liara nodded in response "Forget it, that's Tazzik!"

A Blue Suns Krogan walked over to the Salarian "They grow 'em large in your neighbourhood, don't they?"

"They grow 'em stupid in yours, Where is it?" Tazzik growled menacingly

"The Broker WOULD sent Taz to make the pickup. This day just gets brighter all the time…"

"What's the matter? Who is that?" Liara pointed.

"Taz is the Shadow Broker's one and only hit man, for the rare times when the Broker wants something, or someone, taken care of. The mercs are just hired muscle. Taz, he calls for results, results he usually gets." Feron whispered to Liara, who nodded in reply, checking her over-shield and shield bubble readouts from the micro-HUD the armour put inside its collar when she wasn't wearing the helmet. She knew that without the helmet, the structural fields wouldn't protect her head, but she also knew that anything strong enough to get through the over-shields and shields before she could don the helmet would vaporize her anyway.

Tazzik, below them in the docking bay proper, was examining the coffin-like stasis pod "Identification looks right, is this everything you found?"

"Yep, surprised there was THAT much… human body must be able to take some real punishment…" The Krogan whistled at the end, he had no idea that the main reason there was even a body to be found was the incredible protective properties of Coalition Marine Armour, including the mostly-fried Quantum Propulsion Pack's backup systems allowing for one final burst of energy moments before the armour had hit the ground.

"I've known a few that couldn't." Taz extracted a credit chit from an armour pouch and passed it to the Krogan "Your credits are here, if this isn't legit, I'll be back for them, and YOU go in the box!"

Liara's biotics flared as she realized exactly what was in the box, whatever little remained of her lover was down there and she would get it. "That's it, it's Shepard." He head glowed with energy, a rare occurrence for her since her power levels had mysteriously jacked up.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Feron grabbed her by her forearm plates "It's too risky, Liara, there's got to be another way."

Liara hissed at the Drell's scaly face "I've crossed the galaxy for this, Feron, I'm not going to give you time to change your mind!"

"You're afraid I'm going to RUN?" Feron nearly burst out laughing.

"I'm more afraid you'll switch sides again, I haven't let you out of my sight for fear that you'll get a better offer!"

"Hmm… no, I have a better idea." Feron gestured over to an old defence gun "Check out the old defence guns up there, I think they're still functional… One shot will disable Tazzik's ship before they can go anywhere."

Liara grunted in response. Her biotics or ULPA, which she still carried, could probably tear the ship to scrap before it could go anywhere… but she'll give the man a chance… "Do it, they're starting to move Shepard."

Down in the bay, two Blue Suns mercs were picking up the pod "No, put it down!" Tazzik bellowed.

The Krogan merc chuckled "What's the problem? It's not like Shepard's going to get MORE damaged…"

"No, but you might, I'll take it from here…" Tazzik's men took over carrying the pod "I've got somewhere to be, let's get going before something goes…"

BOOM!

"FUCK!" Feron punched the gun control in frustration, the damned thing was so old and out of alignment it had hit some crates on the other side of the ship instead of the ship itself.

"Get that guy!" one of the mercs pointed.

"Get the body in the ship now!" Tazzik shouted, raising his grenade launcher as the mercs opened fire on the gun's position.

"Nobody move! That cargo is MINE!" A somewhat distorted voice roared as a blue blur ricocheted around the bay, firing off blue pulses that tore mercs to shreds wherever they hit.

Tazzik shook his head "No I remember why I work alone… Screw 'em all!" He fired his grenade launcher to intercept the blur's trajectory.

Liara was about to intercept the grenade and send it back to source, or simply shrug it off her armour over-shield, when Feron tackled her to the ground, yelling "Grenade! Down!"

"GET OFF OF ME!" Liara flung Feron aside, using the armour's strength to augment her own, into a pile of crates as Tazzik's ship left. If Shepard's body hadn't been onboard, she would have simply grabbed the ship with her mind and pulled it back into the bay (earlier experiments had proven she could do so), torn it to scrap with her biotics, blown its engines apart with her ULPA, which had more punch than that old defence gun anyways, or some combination thereof. She screamed wordlessly into the air as she watched the ship fly further into the darkness of space.

* * *

A/N: I went and downloaded a torrent of the comics, just for this.

REVIEW!


	6. Redemption Is Yours!

A/N: I gave Liara some interesting moves i.e. the Palm of Rulai (The Hand of Buddha in plain English) and similar types, though they are not named by, well, name. Enjoy.

I posted my first piece of supporting diagram on DeviantART; the link to my profile there is on my profile now, as of Feb 2, 2011 it still needs to be refined, but I hope it gives a general idea of what an LSMG looks like.

* * *

Chapter 6: Redemption Is Yours!

"Liara… NO!" Feron cringed as the furious Asari turned toward him after tearing the bay apart with her biotics, which seemed abnormally strong even for an Asari.

Her blue eyes blazed with pure hate as her whole demeanour changed, becoming less the nearly happy-go-lucky Maiden and more the pure predator that seemed to have emerged since her lover's death. "How could you be so INCOMPETENT!" She slapped Feron with a biotic whip into another pile of wreckage "You LET Taz get away!" Another pile of crates shattered under her rage "WITH SHEPARD!" She thrust her hand forward, palm open but fingers together, in a direction perpendicular to the line between her and Feron.

The reinforced, thick docking bay wall… distorted. A hand shape, fifteen meters tall and a full meter deep, appeared as Liara's souped-up biotics, boosted further by her armour, smashed into the bulkheads and catwalk, which was instantly flattened against the wall and torn from its supports. Feron nearly pissed himself in terror at the awesome display of power before cowering further into the wrecked crates. "You're still working for the Shadow Broker, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?" Liara screamed as she punched the air, resulting in another crater on the opposite wall roughly in the shape of a fist.

"I never stopped working for him, as far as he knows. But I didn't do that on purpose! The damned gun's calibrations were shit! I don't want the body going to the Collectors, Liara, but I told you this is complicated. Now you can blast me, or we can get after Taz, my ship's right where we left it… we can follow him before he gets away with Shepard!"

Liara growled and picked Feron up with a mere thought, levitating him along behind her as she headed for the ship, using her Quantum Propulsion pack to jump onto the not-yet-completely-destroyed catwalk and to where they'd docked Feron's ship.

* * *

_Near Omega, November 18, 3868_

Miranda Lawson leaned forward in her command chair aboard the Heavy Cruiser that served as flagship for this particular Hunter Clutch. The Clutch consisted of her Heavy Cruiser itself, 2 Light Cruisers, 3 Destroyers, 6 Frigates and 10 Corvettes, plus the fighters they'd transported on their hull clamps, which could transport both land and Air units. "The Salarian must have the body, sir, he's heading for the Omega 2 Relay, but I can stop him. Just give the word and we can take him!" the formerly Aeon woman clenched her fist as she looked out toward the craft slowly escaping them.

"Patience, my child, As much as we want John's body back, we need to know why the Collectors want it too…" Brackman's hologram soothed in his usual sagely tone of voice.

"Understood, but I still wish you'd let us…" Miranda noted the new contact that had been tagged leaving Omega and its course as displayed in her tactical hologram "Wait! Something's following Taz! The Drell's ship! Feron and Liara… if he hasn't ditched her… At least let me follow them, I'll keep my distance!"

"Patience, my child, we know where they are going, let it play out for now, I have learned over the years that micromanaging only leads to disasters, oh yes…" Brackman was rather obviously referring to QAI, so Miranda shrugged and settled back in her comfortable command chair.

"The Shadow Broker's only got one base through that Mass Relay, Liara, on Alingon, we shouldn't have any problem tailing Taz, you can't ask for more than that."

"Oh I don't know… another CHAIR maybe? What? Do you LIVE in this ship?" Liara gestured around at the mess inside.

"Hey, I'm a solo act here… usually. The old plain dealer has made me a wealthy man."

Liara snorted as she locked her armour into place, including helmet, and locked her feet into position on the deck "Just not wealthy enough to afford another acceleration chair…"

Feron shrugged "Well, some deals go wrong. Here, we're coming up to the Relay, you'd better hold on to something… I'd offer to let you sit on my lap… but I don't want to get blasted again." They jumped before Liara could make a snide comment. "Welcome to the Faryar System, Alingon coming up. You're lucky to be with someone who knows his way around."

The ship shook as something hit them "What was that? Is Taz firing on us?"

"No, it's not Taz, it's the Shadow Broker's sentries!"

"Does he attack his workers often?"

"He doesn't like unexpected arrivals, even me, hang on!"

"Fire back, damn it!"

"This isn't a fighter, we don't have any weapons!"

Liara unlocked her armour and headed into the airlock "Well I do."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Feron yelled as Liara jettisoned herself and began trading fire with the automated defence fliers.

Liara put on a quick speed burst as soon as she left the other ship and drew her ULPA, it would be needed for rapid firepower delivery. In gravity, the suits wouldn't devote too much power to recoil dampening, and so her heavy weapons choices were limited, but in space… the suits would devote extra energy to the recoil dampening and less to shock absorbance relative to ground (seismic sensor stealth).

The result was her stacking up against five fighter drones equipped with the high end of Citadel-grade tech with Coalition technology on her side. Four shots from her ULPA turned one drone to scrap, blowing away the weapons and thrusters, another volley at one making a direct run for her bored through its front armour in one hit and blew the core apart with the second. The third… she grabbed it with her biotics and squished it to space dust with only a thought. The fourth and fifth fared no better as they were stasis-ed and riddled with Ultra-Light Phasic Autogun fire, which put out four 30-kg TNT equivalent bolts per second, though against Coalition shields or structural fields this rated less DPS than say a Gauss Chaingun, it was excellent against non-Coalition armour.

A great deal more than five pieces of scrap were left outside by the time Liara piloted her suit back into the airlock, having spent less than a minute killing the enemies before she was back in the cockpit. She didn't even lose over-shields in the exchange due to her nimble dodging, let alone shields or any structural field damage.

"How…" Feron was gaping widely as Liara stowed the ULPA away.

She raised one of her eyebrows, and her helmet optic pattern reflected that. "Does it matter?"

"I suppose not…" Feron went back to flying the ship to Alingon, muttering "I knew Coalition tech was nice, but that… wow, just… wow."

* * *

_Alingon, November 18, 3868_

Liara used standard communications equipment to check the communicability of the region "I can't get a signal at all! I'm not sure your Shadow Broker chose the right real estate for a command center…" though if he had Coalition tech he'd be fine, but she wasn't detecting any signatures similar to Coalition tech or subspace tech from the Koprulu Sector.

"You'd be wrong, the Shadow Broker's got a system that can reliably cut through this, but he's the only one who's got it. It forces his hirelings to come to Alingon in person for orders… and to make any calls they need to make on his behalf off-world, it's another layer of protection, nothing to trace. I'm guessing that's why the sentry ships attacked, we weren't on their list of arrivals they had when they took off."

Liara scoffed as she jumped off the cliff that Feron had been climbing down, coming to a soft landing with her Quantum Propulsion Pack's automated response "That's ridiculous! He's got so much secrecy his people are stumbling over themselves!"

"Maybe, but it sure keeps you from knowing what he's doing, or me. And maybe it'll help us get in…" Feron motioned with his head toward the two guards at the front entrance. Liara shook her head sadly at the laxity of the security "Here, pretend to me my prisoner and I'll charm my way inside…"

She wished, really wished, the idiots would just open the door, turn their backs, and see nothing. Miraculously, both stiffened, opened the doors, and turned their backs. Once her jaw had closed again, and before her helmet cleaning systems had to clean up any drool, she tapped her partner on the shoulder "Feron, I'll carry you and bum-rush them, how's that?"

Liara, not waiting for a reply, slipped through, her armour cloaked and carrying Feron under her arm using her Quantum Propulsion Pack's speed to get into the facility quickly before planting Feron back on his feet, looking around "I think the Broker takes this whole Shadow business a bit too seriously, where are all the people?" True, non-Cybran armours tended to drain much more energy when cloaking so had shorter cloak durations, but it was still more than enough.

Feron gestured about after blinking a few times in shock "There aren't many, this place is only used for Special Business the Broker needs to conduct, Shepard qualifies."

Liara was starting to get annoyed "I'm getting tired of having my friend described as merchandise…"

Feron snorted "I'm not sure Shepard's caring much… But I hear you… Look!" He pulled her behind a pillar as he pointed toward a large carapaced humanoid walking next to a volus.

The volus in question was saying "And the package has arrived on the North Dock. I assure you, it is just as described."

The creature with no visible mouth spoke "It had better be, but you know that. We do not brook dishonesty, or delay"

Liara, who had de-cloaked, removed her helmet—the green optics lights were too conspicuous, even dimmed—and flared her biotics, preparing to attack "Let me go! This is our chance!" She hissed as Feron held her back by her waist.

"Wait! Liara, I know where they're headed. It'll take them a while to re-pressurize the landing bay. We need to find out more about WHY they're doing the deal first."

"Did you see that? That… thing? How could the Shadow Broker deal with them? How could ANYONE?"

"I don't know… I always trusted the Shadow Broker before… he seemed neutral in all things, but this… this I don't understand." They began moving toward a large door "Maybe it's why I'm helping you, I want to know more. And if there's one thing I've learned as an information broker, it's that if you need to know something, you go to the source."

The veiled figure in the pedestal at the far end of the room spoke "Reporting in for work, Feron? People only come to see the Shadow Broker when called, Trader, I didn't call."

"Is he for real?" Liara asked, noting the inside of her collar showed a contact up ahead, but only designated it an energy source, not a living entity, perhaps the Broker was a computer?

Feron spoke in hushed tones "This is how he addresses everyone who comes here. I've never been this close before."

"I'm waiting for an answer, Feron…" The figure intoned. "Since when did you think you can come here uninvited?"

Liara stepped forward "Since you started working for the Collectors, Broker, that simple enough?"

"Scruples? Interesting, I see sending the Blue Suns after you both was a wise precaution. You're supposed to be a businessman, Feron, you should understand when I say their offer was too good to pass up."

"I don't understand… I don't understand ANYONE selling my friend's remains. What could they have offered you that would be worth doing that?"

"Liara, wait! I know you don't trust me, but give me a minute with these systems, they handle EVERYTHING!" Feron hissed in her auditory diaphragm—the ridges along the sides of the Asari head served the same function as human outer ears did—as Liara listened to the Broker's next words.

"The compensation is my business, Dr. T'Soni… but it was significant enough."

"I can find out everything the Broker ordered here, with the Collectors, and Shepard!" Feron continued, Liara leaning away from his voice so she could hear the Broker better, and nodded slightly. The Drell scurried off to a console as she moved by Shenshema

"Yes, I know who you are, and what you want, I have nothing personal against Shepard, or any of Shepard's friends, it was just sound business."

"You don't know what you're dealing with" Liara stepped forward, shaking her head sadly "Shepard died looking for evidence of the Reapers, the ones who attacked the Citadel! Did you ever consider the Collectors' interest might be related to THAT? What would possibly be worth THAT risk?"

"You make too much of this, Liara, it's a corpse, what could they possibly gain from it."

Liara had come up to the outer ring of the pedestal and charged up her biotics "If they're looking for a corpse, I might find an alternative for them… or two." She stopped as she realized what her suit had been trying to tell her all along, she should have worn her helmet, then this conversation would be unnecessary "You're not here, where are you?"

"Where I need to be. The deal is done, Liara, Tazzik is about to make the exchange, product for payment. Right now, the only people who aren't where they need to be are you two. This room connects me to my permanent staff there on Alingon, as soon as I give the signal, they'll come. If you're working for someone else, they'll get it out of you." Liara's temper was near cracking "It's not my usual way of gaining information, but it is effective."

"Liara, I've got it! Let loose!" Feron's words weren't even finished when Liara's temper shattered. With two open palms charged with biotic energy, the entire pedestal crumbled to dust as they smashed into the now warped and broken far wall of the room. A second slashing wave of biotic energy thrown off the unleashed Asari shattered every single console in the room with one blast. Then she threw out her palms to both sides, and those walls warped outward with the sheer power her mind was putting out. Seeing the ceiling in danger of collapse, Liara T'Soni thrust both fists up above her head, blowing a hole clean through the ceiling as it fell in.

"That felt good." She said as Feron, who'd taken advantage of the debris-free area around the Asari to not get crushed, chuckled.

"He won't be ordering anyone from this room anymore, and I downloaded a lot about the Broker's dealings."

Liara looked down at the ground sadly "Yes, but we've lost Shepard, the Broker said it was a done deal, the Collectors have the body."

"Not yet, before the display I was looking at went out, it said they've just arrived at the North Portal…"

Liara grabbed the Drell under her armour's armpit and began running for the exit "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" She said as she carried Feron like a long board.

"We will, but first…" Liara put him down for a moment "While we still have the chance, I'd better tell you who I'm REALLY working for."

* * *

_Alingon, November 18, 3868_

"What's going on?" One of the Turians that had been at the front entrance asked the other as the armed personnel of the base converged in the central room

"I don't know, just MOVE! All I know is the Shadow Broker's Command Channel's throwing nothing but static! There's something big going down today, and I'm not gonna be blamed for anything screwing it up!"

"But nobody's allowed to talk to anybody else around here, how do we know this isn't another damned drill?"

"It's real." The voice came from ahead, where a suit of white-green armour in a blue aura stood, holding a weapon the likes of which none of the assorted Turians or Batarians had seen before. "Take MY word for it."

Liara T'Soni's biotically supercharged fist let loose her new attack, the result was all the armed mercs flying into the far wall, accelerating all the way and creating impact craters where their armour shattered against the wall. Liara's LSMG burned through each of their skulls methodically while they were still out or dead from the first strike.

"Feeling better, Liara? I could find some Krogan for you to beat to death."

"Don't tempt me, Feron, the one I really want to kill is YOU!" She poked him with a charged finger, with the result that he winced, since even though he had armour it was still roughly equivalent to a baseball bat to the chest. "How DARE you lie to me again?"

"It wasn't a bad lie… as my lies go anyway."

Liara huffed in irritation "Spare me, you're a double, no, TRIPLE agent!"

"I'm just Feron, and yes, I work for the Cybran Nation… too. I can explain, but we need to keep moving if we want to save Shepard!"

"I'll move, though I'm not sure I want to give you more time to invent lies."

They boarded a tram, and Feron began his story "It wasn't always like this for me. I worked for myself until the Shadow Broker came along, or rather, until his people contacted me. It was just small jobs at first. Information-gathering, surveillance, the Broker needed someone with my connections, and I needed someone with his bank account. You've seen my lifestyle, such as it is, say what you want about the Shadow Broker, but he pays his people well."

He took a deep breath "We Drell are all thankful to the Cybran Nation for coming along and saving our homeworld, though the borders still only allow a few immigrants to Coalition space, and they're still strictly screened first. However, Brackman learned of my working for the Shadow Broker and tried to recruit me a few times to turn on him." He gritted his teeth "That Miranda woman figured I'd be easy to flip, that I was a highest-bidder kind of trader… but that's not me at all. If I take a job for a customer, I finish it, whatever it is." He punched his palm "I never once screwed over a client… or cared what they were really up to, NEVER! Not even for the offer of immigration back to the Homeworld! I never cared… until the Collectors came along. It disgusted me that the Broker wanted to do business with them. I wanted to walk, but then I heard they were interested in Shepard's remains. That was beyond perverse, I had to stop it."

"But I needed help, there was only one option, the Coalition. For such an isolationist galactic superpower" It was surprising that they weren't racist, snobbish or anything, but they were isolationist. "To approach ME for help, they had to be as concerned about the Collectors as I was. So I went around Miranda to see the guy at the top, Brackman, with Rhianne, Hall and Ratheen all in the know about it. We came up with a plan for me to grab the body, but the Broker had begun to worry about my loyalties, maybe someone had seen me with Miranda… He started to cut me out, and I had to find a way back in, and that way… was you. When you told me you were coming to Omega to look for Shepard, you became my ticket inside. I volunteered to distract you for the Broker while his deal was going down."

Liara finally spoke up "I don't think it worked, if he sent those mercs after me anyway. Didn't he think he could trust you?"

Feron was still angling his face away from her "Well, he really couldn't trust me, could he? And neither could you… I was just going to lead you away and find Shepard myself. I guess Doctor Brackman thought we'd work better as a team, but I wasn't supposed to tell you I was working for the Coalition, even Miranda doesn't know, it's safer that way." He turned back to her, the data storage device he'd downloaded the Shadow Broker's info to in his hand. "You were right. I did let Tazzik get away." He stared at the device, not looking at Liara "I wanted to get here and confirm the deal was with the Collectors, and I wanted one last chance to download whatever I could about his dealings." He handed the device to Liara "I'm probably done as an info trader after this, the Shadow Broker will make sure no one ever trusts me again, but I'm sorry YOU couldn't trust me. Maybe this will change things, get that back to the Coalition, in particular the Cybrans, whatever happens." The tram stopped and they walked off.

Liara unslung her dual SMGs and used the included sound-making ratchet mechanism to dramatically pull the (purely decorative) bolts and activate them, though this was simply for aesthetics and to fool enemies into underestimating draw/activation times (the only thing needed for activation is the grip of an authorized user) "Feron, I know it may be a strange concept for your line of work, but nobody ever said an information trader had to work only for money. I still don't know whether to trust you or not, but you've helped me get this close. Words aren't the only things that speak the truth." She squeezed his arm, then giggled as he glared at her for the dent she'd put in the plates with her armour's strength. "Sorry, here, I'll fix that." With a moment of work, her armour's repairing protocols fixed Feron's gauntlet.

"Uh… this is it then, whatever happens, you get Shepard's body, and that data, out of here, preferably both."

"Don't worry, Feron." Liara grinned and put up her eye-patch that served as a HUD when she didn't want to be conspicuous by wearing her helmet (and actually remembered the eye-patch existed, which she didn't before). "WE will."

* * *

"Good, good." The Collector had opened the box up to look inside "the Product is exactly what is required. The Shadow Broker had done well…"

"It was Tazzik here who took care of the last… er… leg." The volus finished rather lamely, arching his back to look up at the towering Salarian.

"You don't need to take inventory, everything that's Shepard is there." He stepped up to the coffin-like pod "Tough to recognize, I know, hard to tell if it's even a man or woman, blown to hell like that. But it's what you want, and it's all yours as soon as the Shadow Broker receives his payment."

Behind a nearby crate, Feron and Liara were crouched, watching the small army of mercs of assorted non-human non-Asari species on one side and the small horde of Collectors on the other behind the larger Collector General with orange eyes "This is it, Liara, you know what to do, the body and the data, no matter what happens, get them out of here!"

Liara rolled her eyes as she held her SMGs firm "I know what to do, I just hope you do. We've been here before. You're not going to 'accidentally' let Taz get away again, are you?"

"Not a chance, now stay put… I think I still have one last play left in me!" He went around and out of the cover as Liara facepalmed. She could have taken care of it with precision biotics plus weapons, but no… Feron just had to pull this shit. "Taz, you old Salarian son of a bitch! I thought that was you!"

"Huh, it's you." Taz grunted "I thought I saw you skulking around back on Omega… the boss have you tailing me for a reason?" The Collector General was busy putting the lid back on the coffin, though it kept two glowing eyes on the proceedings.

"A pretty good reason, I'd say, there's a problem with the payment, the Broker's not happy with the arrangement."

The Collector had picked up the pod, hugging it grotesquely, its chest claws hanging on either side of the thing "There is no problem with the arrangement, half now, half when we have confirmed Shepard's identity ourselves!"

"The Broker doesn't have time to wait while you screw around playing coroner. HE wants all the money, NOW, or no Shepard, try to find another, maybe someone will sell you a kit?"

Taz confronted Feron "We haven't heard anything from the Broker about this, what are you trying to pull?"

"Nothing, you may have noticed internal communications are down, the Broker sent me with this order in person. Shepard goes back into your hold until further notice. You wouldn't want to disappoint the Broker, would you? He may not be able to talk to you, but he's always watching."

"Screw this shit… back aboard the ship, boys, until we get this sorted out!" Taz waved his men to take the coffin from the outraged Collector.

* * *

_Unknown Location, November 18, 3868_

"THIS IS BETRAYAL!" The Collector screeched, flaring its claws threateningly "I told you what I saw, Shadow Broker, why did you send the Drell to terminate the transaction?"

"Feron? He definitely does NOT speak for me, he's a traitor… working with that Coalition woman to steal Shepard. They destroyed my link to Alingon, so I can't tell Taz otherwise!"

"Our communications cannot be stopped so easily… you pretend to be everywhere at once, I already am!"

* * *

_Alingon, November 18, 3868_

Taz towered over the stumpy Volus in front of him "I don't care, just get it onboard! We're not going anywhere!"

"You pretend to be everywhere at once…" the Collector mumbled "I already AM!"

"What's he babbling on about?" Taz asked Feron just before the Collector pointed at the Drell.

"The Shadow Broker says… Feron is the traitor!" The Collector pointed with a clawed hand

Feron held up his hands in surrender when Taz and the mercs pointed their guns toward him "Come on, Taz, who are you gonna believe? Me? Or THAT? How could the Shadow Broker tell it anything?"

"How did it know your name, Feron?" Taz pressed his SMG to Feron's head.

"Smarter than you look, but you don't know the half of it! Liara, NOW!" Feron shouted.

Instead of using her supercharged fist or palm technique, which took more energy than she had left, Liara used a Shockwave to blast EVERYONE, yes, all twenty or so individuals on each side, to the ground before she opened up with her weapons, the Phasic SMG cutting one Collector down per two shots while the LSMG hacked through the armour of the mercs one by one, their shields already depleted from the shockwave.

Tazzik was first to recover as Liara smashed her way through the small mob of soldiers "That's enough, damn it! Time for you to…" his aim with his Carnifex hand cannon was thrown off as Feron tackled him, not that the gun would have done anything anyways, but Feron didn't know Liara's shields were on, since they were invisible unless taking hits. "Ugh!"

Liara came face-to-face with the Collector General and blasted it out of her way with a volley of Phasic SMG fire as her LSMG took care of some other foes and she ran for the ship "Feron, come on, let's go!" She was about to get swarmed by the sheer number of enemies, and using grenades or her ULPA in such confined spaces could damage Shepard's pod… also, her biotics hadn't entirely recovered from the massive drain her destruction of the Shadow Broker's comm. array had caused.

"Liara, go, go now, SAVE SHEPARD!" Feron ground out as Taz held him and started punching his face repeatedly.

"Feron!" Liara screamed before she let out a final Shockwave and exhausted her biotics, keeping the ship's ramp clear of the horde trying to swarm her. She realized there was no chance of effectively saving Feron against this horde, ULPA not being an option due to splash damage and Feron's armour being nowhere up to adequate to protect from the concussive force, and went for the controls of the ship, grappling the stasis pod and closing the ramp.

Tazzik's ship rose away from the facility under her guidance and toward space, toward the Mass Relay that would take them to the awaiting Coalition warships. Liara closed her eyes for a moment as the ship left atmosphere "We did it, Feron… you did it." She said softly as she plotted a course for the Relay and went back to check on Shepard's pod.

* * *

_Lazarus Station, High Orbit over Procyon, November 22, 3868_

"You did well, Liara, we were right to put our faith in you… Shepard obviously made some very good friends. I just wish I had better news for you… We may not be able to restore Shepard after all, the body is in worse shape than we expected. There were some preservation systems in the pod, but they were hardly optimal."

Liara sniffled, hugging her shoulders; calling her dead lover's body a body was overstating things, when she'd looked into the pod… She shivered "Then I don't see the point, Miranda, maybe I don't know what human traditions are, but I really think you should let the dead rest. This isn't what I brought Shepard back for, this is almost like… like…"

Miranda turned her sea-green eyes toward the Asari "Like something the Collectors would have done? We don't know what they would have done, Liara, though hopefully the information you brought back may suggest something, and it might not be as bad as you think. The bosses are more hopeful about Shepard's prospects, we're willing to spend all the time we need, but it will be a very long time if we don't want to kill him again by accident. I wouldn't sit around waiting here…"

"What will your boss, Doctor Brackman, do about Feron?"

Miranda closed her eyes as she spoke, shaking her head "The Drell knew the risks when he offered to help. We won't be going after him, since we don't know where he is. If you want to, that's your business…" She sighed and turned toward Liara, looking her in the eyes "but I'd focus on something else if I were you, do something YOU want to do."

Liara looked out the view port they were near to the stars beyond "That's exactly what I'm going to do, Miranda, I've got another friend to help now… and I've made a new enemy. I'm afraid we all have…"

* * *

A/N: There goes ME: Supreme Redemption…

Anyone spot the chapter title references?

REVIEW!


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